O'Neillio's

photo extravaganza

2011-10-18T09:02:00.000-07:00

Dear Baby

2011-04-06T14:14:00.000-07:00

Dear Baby, You are coming more or less in 8 weeks and we haven't done much for your coming at all. The other night I had a dream you were coming and we didn't have the carseat. So that day I washed and vaccumed the cover. Your brother had a good time talking about how you will cry and go nigh-night in there. He also liked sitting and rocking in your carseat. Don't worry though, we let him know it's your carseat now. Please don't think that because we haven't done much that you aren't as loved or that we aren't excited. We VERY much are so excited to meet you and welcome you into this world and into our family. I think you are excited and that want out as much as I want you out. I think you are running out of room in that belly of mine and boy to your kicks and stretches hurt! Your big brother saw a new baby the otherday and was so excited to see and play and touch it. He kept yelling "a BAYBY!!" over and over with great amazement and excitement. That brought me joy thinking that he will be just as excited about you! At least for a couple days :o) We still don't have a name for you. The list keeps getting longer and longer. I hope we find one that suits you well before it is too late. I hope you are doing well in there! We love you incredibly already. Come soon! Love, Mom

Getting ready for the baby.

2011-02-15T07:52:00.000-08:00

"HELLO!"
Here is a funny picture of Keegan being silly through our stair well.

Yesterday we got a new nursing chair! I'm so excited about it! We had a stationary chair in Keegan's room when he was little and it worked just fine but I thought it would be nice to have a rocker. We have a rocking chair that is a family heirloom but it has wood arms and I would always hit Keegan's head on the arms!
So I wanted to cute, plush chair. We have been on the look out for a while. They are expensive!! We found this one on craigs list for pretty inexpensive! It's in great condition, looks barely used!

Keegan is saying "night night" in this photo. Which is why he is laying down with a weird look on his face. He has been so silly lately! And picking up words like crazy! I think in the last week he has said more than 20 new words. Words that we didn't even know he knew like tape! or noodle! It's been so fun. I think he has obtained the skill of copying words.
He's also super excited about letters lately and can point out a handful of letters. I was so suprised yesterday he came to me with his magnet letter "m" told me what it was, turned it upside down, and said "woobwowu" It is so crazy the kind of things kids pick up! We aren't even trying very hard to teach him! Crazy guy.

I'm 24 weeks pregnant now, so six months! I can't believe we only have three more months til this little guy comes out! He is a mover and a shaker! Always moving and kicking!
We're planning on having him sleep in our room for a good chunk of time so we put our new rocker in our room. We might even have the baby's room be my closet for a while, just so we can keep our guest room. That's what we are thinking right now, but it might change. When can kids share a room?

It's A BOY!

2011-02-07T22:17:00.000-08:00

So Most people by now know that we are due to have a baby June 5-ish! But I thought I would log it on our blog just in case the gender word didn't get out and also for our own personal log here on the blog :0)

Three weeks ago before our Campus Crusade Staff meeting we had our 20 week appointment. We decided to have the ultrasound technician write the sex on a piece of paper so that we can have a surprise reveal with our Corvallis family- our staff team.
So the technician wrote it down and we gave that slip of paper to Julie on our team who then frosted the middle of this cake the gender color! Mid staff meeting the cake came out and we got to slice into it!
If I'm honest I can say that I wasn't really able to concentrate during the first half of our staff meeting. I was nervous and ready to hear the news! Running all the images of the ultrasound in my head trying to remember if I saw any evidence. Replaying the technicians words trying to hear clues. Which she did give us a few BIG clues. I couldn't tell if they were slip ups or honest mistakes. Either way we sliced into this yummy cake aaandd...

BLUE!!!
Brent saw the color first, he yelled "It's going to be a boy!!" I wouldn't believe it until I saw that blue with my own eyes. Yup. BLUE! Another boy!!
The news came as a shock even though the ultrasound tech. slipped
She slipped by saying things like "HIS." Also when I asked her if she was sure she knew the sex she said "OH YES! It was VERY obvious!" I thought, well so are your words. You just gave it away lady! What could possibly so obvious besides little baby BOY parts!
I'm not sure how those Tech's do it when the clients really do not want to know the sex. At least with her slip up we were going to find out an hour or so later. Anyhow...

Here is our lovely Staff Team! I'm glad we got to share that moment with them.

Top Left: Allan, Steph, Lauren, Sarah, Hannah, Matt, Tom (S,H,M and T are all student staff) Julie. Bottom left: Brent, Alli, Byron and I

I thought I was really starting to pop outthen and now that I look at this picture, there isn't so much of a baby bump as the image I had in my mind. ha.

Afterwards the ladies and I got to process how I was feeling about having another boy and that was good too. I was a little let down. No ribbons and bows for this household, yet at least. We'll see after this baby is born if that is ever going to be an option.
But now I am excited about another boy! Keegan has a couple friend-boys that he plays with and it is so fun to see them belly laugh, play cars and chase each other. He is such a boys boy, it will be good for him to have another little buddy to chum around with. Plus! We have all boy toys and clothes so we are set! Yay!
A couple days after we got the news I realized I had forgotten that I once said I've always wanted boys! Lots of rowdy boot-trompin' over-all wearin', rock throwin', cape flying-superman boys! So I guess I'm getting that dream. That I need to keep remembering.

Bye Bye Poo Poo!

2011-01-15T13:49:00.000-08:00

Potty Training?
Lately Keegan has been taking more notice to his little potty and saying things like "bye bye Poo-Poo" when Brent or I go to the bathroom or we throw the dirties from his diapers away. I don't think he understands too much more then that, but it's a step forward! We aren't doing much to start the potty training but today I thought we'd try seeing if he'd want to sit on the potty during a time when he would regularly be pooping in his diaper. He didn't go. But he sat on the potty happily for a while reading books with Brent. I'd say first pass initiation to the potty seat was a success!

Here is just a cute photo from christmas. We didn't end up taking too many Christmas photos this year, but we had a great time with family and Keegan got a ton of great presents! Mostly Car's the movie themed things. Which he has LOVED! We're excited about next year and being able to teach him more about the Christmas story. I'm not sure he was old enough this year to pick anything up. Although he did recognize there was a baby involved. I guess that is a good step.

Things we have been up to lately!

2011-01-15T13:36:00.000-08:00

The other day Keegan ran excitedly into the kitchen with both of his pirate hats exclaiming "Daddy too! Daddy too!" so they put on their hats and had fun being pirates. Keegan is saying "Cheessssee" in this picture. Thats a new thing. We think he might have a lisp and trouble saying his "r's" which is really cute.

Today was a rainy day and we were getting house bored so we decided to venture out with boots and rain jackets to the "bi Choo Choo" Big Train park in town. Here is Keegan exploring the Big Choo Choo

He Loved it!

Near the "Bi-Choo-Choo" is a bunch of cement structures that kind of look like dinosaur bones for kids to climb on and through. He was just as excited about running around the bones and going through the holes.

Some of these pictures are a little burry but you get the gist. Keegs is looking more and more like a boy these days. He' growing taller and talking more and more. It's really fun.
Yesterday we had our 20 week ultrasound appointment for baby #2 and found out we're having another BOY! We're excited to bring up another fun and full of energy boy! After going to the park in the rain today it was fun to imagine coming again in a year or so and watching two boys run around in the mud together!
Keegan had brought a lot of laughter and joy into our house with his sillyness and crazy boy energy! I'm curious what life will be like with two! I'm suspecting we are going to have a loud household. I hope I can keep up!

Fall Has Begun!

2010-10-09T14:23:00.000-07:00

We got a knock on our door a couple of weeks ago and a big heavy package arrived... hundreds of "Would you like to know God personally?" booklets.

It is neat to get a package like that in the mail and know that hundreds of college students are going to be given the opportunity to hear in a clear way what it means to Know God! College students will be given a tool that will give them confidence in sharing the gospel. Hundreds of students might be entering into the eternal life because of those booklets! Pretty sweet to think about.

So Keegan got his first chance to check one out. They are a little over his head, but he liked the pictures.

In other news... keegan has enjoyed coloring at his table these days... and eating crayons.

Check out his latest peice of art!!

That's Right! He's going to be a big brother in 9 months!! We are pregnant. Expecting baby number 2 sometime around the beginning of June if all goes well! We are excited!!! I'm a little overwhelmed with thinking about taking care of two babies, there are a lot of things to wean Keegan from in the next nine months! But I try not to think about all that just yet.

A few fun things

2010-09-15T20:22:00.000-07:00

Keegan loves the Cars movie cartoon figures. Everytime we go to the store and he sees Lightning Mcqueen he kind of goes nuts. I purposefully distract him sometimes so he doesn't see him. The other day we passed by some Lightning Mcqueen slippers and i caved and got them. i figured they would double for a toy! Then we asked some friends if they had the movie, because you can't have Lightning Mcqueen slippers without seeing the movie! He was plastered to the TV. He sat like this for probably 5 minutes which is a big deal for him. Then he started shouting "CAR CAR!" and "WHhoooaa!!" it was a lot of fun.

This is Fiona ("FiFi) she's three weeks younger than keegan and they met when she was three days old. They just might be best friends. They give each other hugs everytime they see each other. unprompted.

She spent the night last night and before she left in the morning I asked Keegan to give her a hug and they kissed. Not their first kiss to each other by the way. They might be in love.

2010-06-22T09:28:00.000-07:00

This is how keegan signs "baby." It's different from the typical two handed cradle hold for baby because he likes to hold babies on his shoulder so he can cuddle and kiss them. He even does a little coo that sounds a little like the word baby, with sweet tones. love it.

On the way to colorado we camped out one night. It was a little bit of a crazy night, probably 30 degrees out and so i was didn't sleep much because i spent most of the night worried and checking to make sure keegan wasn't freezing. We had keegan in so many clothes it was crazy. He had on socks, a onsie, pjs, a snow suit, a beanie, a blanket and brents down jacket layed over him. he was warm. except when we changed his diaper in the middle of the night. His little cheeks were all red for the next couple of days though. is it possible to get a burn on the cheeks from it being too cold?

Here he is, throwing rocks in the river!

little bits of colordo

2010-06-22T09:02:00.000-07:00

I can't believe we have been on summer project for three weeks now. Time has flown! It's been busy and exciting. Crested Butte is absolutely gorgeous with these kind of veiws all around!

We have been on a couple of hikes with keegan. He really likes looking at the views and pointing out the water! Water is one of his favorite things these days. He notices it all over the place. He loves puddle jumping and could throw rocks and sticks in the rivers all day long if I'd let him!

Summer project is nice because we get to do a lot of things together as a family. It's been nice to see Brent more often. Keegan has loved it too! Sometimes he'll wake up from the morning or a nap and look all around the apartment for "dada" I'm "dada" too. Mama hasn't seem to haev been an easy thing for him to say yet.

This is our coaching team for the summer! All of us were on LifeLines last summer (with the exception of one guy) that has been so fun for me to get to spend the summer with these people! they are all so great! Our roommates for the summer are Tracy and Adam. Tracy is in the purple and adam is behind her in the green. Keegan can say both of there names now. He LOVES adam! yesterday he was looking for adam in the apartment. i guess keegan really wanted to play with him. Adam is usually wearing a hat, that is just one of the reasons keegan likes him.

We miss everyone at home! It's odd how we pick up our lives for a couple of months every summer. I'm learning from the other moms here how to do that better with kids. Things like pack toys, but purchase some cheap toys at garage sales; pack cook books. tupperware and spices; get a library card first thing when you get into town. Know where the parks and coffee shops are located. Remember that if things get busy you'll get to see your husband in a couple of weeks or at least at bedtime. It has been nice to have other staff moms here to get ideas from and to see what kind of involvemet they have on campus. It helps me feel more assured in my role as a mom in ministry.
More pictures to come!

Avery Park

2010-05-11T23:45:00.000-07:00

The other day it was bright and sunny and we decided to take a family bike ride to the park up the street! The park has a big train that kids can climb all over. Ever since my college days here at OSU I have dreamed about taking my future son to the park to enjoy the train. So we put on Keegan's appropriately train striped overalls and went exploring at the park! Even Charlie had a good time lazing in the sun while people oogoogled and googled over him.
Here are a few shots from our day at the park!

what a BOY! I love it.

Airplanes

2010-05-05T21:08:00.000-07:00

This is sign language for Airplane. Or close to it.

ALL day long Keegan does this sign. I had no idea how many planes flew over our house until he learned this sign. He can hear the quietest plane. He has a 95% rate of accuracy. Those lawn mowers really throw him off. He hasn't discovered what that sound is yet because we use a push lawn no-noise-mower.

Tonight as I was feeding him before bed he heard a plane and there, in the dark, mid-drink, he did the plane sign. SO CUTE!

Today as we were going for a walk he saw some wind chimes and we discovered that he learned a new sign. The sign for "bell" he did is perfectly! We have a bell by our door that rings when the heater turns on. He's known it is a bell for a long time, i think. We would ask him where the bell is and he would look right at it. but now he can sign about it!

Still no useful signs though like "food" or "more" I guess airplanes and lights are more important.

Thankfulness

2010-04-17T23:29:00.000-07:00

Another month. Here are some things I am thankful for:

- A 13th month old! Today is keegan's 13 month birthday! I'm thankful we're out of the "baby" stage but I'm not ready for him to grow up. But somethings never change (i dunno how to flip this picture sorry.)

- No more toys in the living room. well mostly. we have a play room now! We turned our library into the play room. thats right, we're "real" parents now.

- A creative husband. Brent built a train table for Keegan! we still need to paint it but Keegs loves it

-Keegan's love for his "hat." He says it all day and pats his head. adorableness

- Spring. The vine on the outside of the house has beautiful purple fragrant flowers. I love it

- I noticed friday that the trees have leaves. Isn't weird how you don't notice and then one day you look up and all the trees are green? SURPISE!

- New friends.

-The poop face

- Parks with swings. Keegan could swing all day and almost did just that today!

- Hippie corvallis and the saturday market. It opened today and the whole community was there, mostly.

-Graduated students that are friends.

- OshKosh striped overalls

- A rough and tough baby boy that eats sand, loves cars and has little cuts on his face.

- For airplanes and dogs and the sounds keegan makes to tell me they exist.

- For bedtime. I'm so tired these days!

-Weddings! Katie looked beautiful and so was her wedding! and for being a bridesmaid! I loved being there to support my friend.

- Baby showers. fancy drinks, fancy food and Pregnant ladies!

- Newborn baby girls! and giant flowers on their heads.

- Photgraphy and artsy-ness

- Old friends visiting

- Learning how to be more "green"

- Family. and Love.

- For not having answers and having to look to God for them.

- That God says He will never leave me or forsake me and will be with me always. (Deuteronomy 31:8 and Matthew 28:20)

Well thats just a few. I'm sure there are more I can't think of at the moment.

The Birthday Party.

2010-03-28T22:08:00.000-07:00

THE CAKE!
My sister, Brent, Kathy, Mick, Tom and I slaaaved... not really it was a lot of fun. We had some creative genius advise for details. look at that amazing rice cracker coal smoke!

Me and my Bro Bryan.

The Cousins.

I wish this picture was closer up. Or that we got a picture of everyone in their party hats. which most wore the whole time! Who knew party hats were so much fun!?

Look at the pile of toys! and the balloon overshadows the presents. good thing he had the help of the cousins and jackson for opening the great presents.

I told you he hates the hats. I left it on for a little bit and he forgot it was even there.

The happy FAMILY! I'm so thankful for these two men in my life! Well Keegan is a boy but you know what i mean.

Keegs and his friends. :o)

Post train cake eating play with grandma O and Keegs new wooden train!

I just love this photo. each cousin in their own world. with their own toy. Haley found lady bugs in our backyard and got to take some home. I was so glad i saved some glass containers. I knew they would come in handy someday! now they are a home to some very loved lady bugs. (who are probably dead now...sorry ladies)

We had a great party! Good food, fun cake, great friends. Thanks for all who came to celebrate our milestone of Keegan's first birthday. It felt it was more a celebration for me than for him. I can't believe its been a year. CAN NOT BELIEVE it and it seems over night he's a TODDLER. talking walking almost weaned and throwing fits. *sigh* what happened?

Sometimes if wonder if a was able to breath enough to enjoy his infant hood. There have been many many wonderful incredibly joyful times but I wonder if I missed some of those moments in my feelings of being overwhelmed and in over my head. Maybe next baby I will know more of what to expect and get to relax a bit more? I hope so.

I'm excited for this next year though, this is when we get to really know Keegan. His personality comes out from here on out and I can't wait to meet and understand my baby boy. I can't wait to find out how God created him and to enjoy the gifts God has given him.

So far the things that I notice I'm not sure if they are Keegan or just a growing toddler. Maybe I'll blog about things i notice later. I'm blogged out.

I feel accomplished.

2010-03-18T15:53:00.001-07:00

In the last week I:

Hosted a bridal shower for my good friend Katie!

Went to a Benefit Concert for my friend Noel who is going to Australia with WYAM.

Made homemade Chai Tea thanks to Julie Cooley for the recipie! It's wonderfully spicy.

Made organic All-Purpose and Window cleaners. Which I used today and they smell lovely!

Started using my cloth wipes again hopefully this home-made wipe solution will not give my baby diaper rash

Made home-made hummus for the first time ever! I love hummus but the hubby always complains because I supposedly "smell like garlic for daays" which I guess makes me less kissable. psh.
So in order to enjoy the hummus and the husband to enjoy me. I made my own from a recipie that a long lost relative gave us from his book "Good Food Great Medicine."
The hummus is very zesty... and hopefully not too garlic-y. I can't wait to eat it like crazy! Yay for good healthy foods.
Oh and Celebrated Keegan's big number 1 of course!

Lasagna, St. Patty's and birthday.

2010-03-17T22:59:00.000-07:00

The other night we had lasagna for dinner. I had made something different for Keegan, partly because I wasn't sure if the sause would be too spicy and partly because I thought it would be too messy. Keegan won us over though. He must have known how good it was and how fun it is to eat! He got suuuper messy. I'm so glad bath time comes after dinner!

Look what Gi-Gi Skans made me for St. Patricks day!! Stylin'

Last time my mom was in town we decided "Gi-Gi" is her grandma name. We like it. Cute huh?

A year ago today, Charlie had no idea of how much his life would change. Happy Birthday to a life change, Charlie. He's not too happy about it if you can't tell from this picture.

Keegan and Charlie have recently been able to play together, that has been fun. Keegan can throw Charlie's toys to play fetch and of course climb all over Charlie. Actually Charlie has come in handy. Today Keegan almost fell over and used Charlie as a prop. Nice job. Things are turning up Charlie!

"It's my birthday and I can cry if I want to" actually I think I might have slightly snapped the hat string on accident. He doesn't really like the party hats now. Sad day because they are so cute.

We started off Keegan's birthday by hanging a balloon in his room last night from the ceiling light. A friend told me about that idea a couple of years ago . She looked forward to waking up on her birthday to a ceiling full of birthday balloons. Keegan LOVES balloons so we thought that would be a fun tradition. One balloon per year. This morning he woke up to his balloon and we woke up to the words "Ba-tr!!" Ba-ooon!!" over and over and over, louder and louder. It was really cute. It's nice to wake up with a smile. (He is still calling everything bottle aka "ba-tr") Then we had some nice Choco Chip waffles that Brent made special. Keegan really liked the candle.

Then.... Presents!!! We got Keegan a really cool "hammer ball" toy from Plan Toys. I like that brand of toy a lot. Look at the excitment on Charlie's face. He couldn't wait for his turn.

Charlie loves licking Keegan's running nose, but Keegan is starting to get too smart for Charlie and moving out of the way too fast. haha charlie!
Keegs is getting his top teeth in! I spotted the tooth poking through a couple of days ago. Actually today I could have sworn Keegan was grinding his tiny bit of top tooth with his bottom teeth. That is the worst sound! I think worse than nails on a chalkboard. I'll have to get him a night gaurd. Start the protection early.

Happy Birthday Baby Boy!! We are sooo glad you joined our family. So thankful God chose you for us. What would we do without you?! You melt my heart and have brought us so much joy.

It's a big week!

2010-03-11T21:32:00.000-08:00

This last week Keegan finished his second class with flying colors. We have been taking a mommy and me class at the community college the last two terms. The classes are more like a giant playdate. It's been so fun to meet moms in the community and watch each of the babies grow.
A couple weeks ago a few of the moms and i went to the pottery place downtown to paint our childs hands on pottery. Here is a picture of Keegan with is friends!

This week he also started saying words clearly!! Here is sampling.

although i'm beginning to think that maybe he just likes the word bottle because he was calling everything bottle today. it was confusing for me, i thought it was starving. turns out he just likes saying it over and over and over.

AND...

He's been working on walking for a looong time but this week he has been letting go of things and venturing it out. Today in particular he was zooming all over the place. walking with his arms in the air like a zombie. haha

2010-03-04T09:53:00.000-08:00

I can't figure out why those videos in my last post aren't working. They are cute though!

Last week Brent went out of town for a friends wedding so my mom came down to help out with Keegs and keep us company. It was a lot of fun. Keegan just loves hanging out with my mom. She's very entertaining and funny.
Here's a few pictures from our week:
Tin man? maybe next halloween buddy.

Yup, that is cheese in his nose. i thought it was hilarious.

Last night keegan played with his diapers for a good 30 minutes. His favorite toys right now are little easter eggs, anything he can "bang" against something to make a cool noise and any kind of ball. He's not that big into real toys, they dont keep his attention for very long. figures.
He also loves going outside. Lately he'll point and point out the window waiting to go for a walk or play outside. He loves watching the birds and airplanes and looking at the trees and dogs. He can even say a few of them!

So far his vocabulary is

"ba" = ball

"Batur" = bottle

"bazoon" = balloon

"Brr" = bird

"haaaa" = hot -he just picked that one up this morning!

He signs:

Car, tree and light! I was hoping to do more signing but from the way he's picking up words maybe we won't need it!

Still not walking yet, but he is sooooo close! I'm okay with is i suppose. With the exception of when he wants to play outside. I know dirtiness in inevitable but i'm thinking that he can play in the dirt when he starts walking. :o)

We have been using disposible diapers this week because he's had a crazy diaper rash and interesting poop. I think it might be because i started using cloth wipes to go with the cloth diapers, maybe my wipe solution is too strong? I'm not sure what the cause is but it's been easier to do disposible for this time until we figure out the culprit. sorry cloth i love you so!

A Couple fun videos

2010-02-18T21:24:00.000-08:00

Keegan really likes lights. Lately he has become more vocal about it, he used to point at them and grunt but now he says "OoOooo" and "ba" when he sees them. "ba" means a lot of things these days and light is one of them. So I took him to home depot a couple weeks ago and forgot about that HUUGE light section there and when i passed by there were lots of OOOooo's and Ba's i tried telling brent about it but he needed to experience the greatness of it too so we went back. I wish i would have video-ed the initial viewing of the lights for you because it was a lot more exciting but i think you get the jist! so cute.

Keegan has been crawling to and playing with the guitar for a while now. It makes me wonder if he will be a musical little guy. Last week he discovered he could use a stick to hit the strings and it made a cooler noise. He's a little snap shot!

His birthday is less than a month away! I can't beleive it has been nearly a year. I've asked some students to help me make a cool cake. I'm not sure what it is going to be but we make a pretty sweet cake for Steph's birthday. It was steph sitting under a tree on an island in the sea. there was so much more to that cake though but describing it could not even come close to telling you the greatness and how much pride i got from that cake. so I'm guessing keegan's will also be very cool.

So sweet.

2010-02-08T11:16:00.000-08:00

I just balled my eyes out. there was a literal puddle on my table because of these blog posts...
if you are brave and love children read these posts.
I don't know these women but i love their stories.

A beautiful birth story:
http://enjoyingthesmallthings.blogspot.com/2010/01/nella-cordelia-birth-story.html

A lovely life journey: (read her Jan. 22nd entry in particular)
http://www.kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/

Uh Oh...

2010-02-02T11:26:00.000-08:00

Keegan is a little explorer! Recently his favorite thing to explore is the bathroom. It gives me the heebie geebies imagining him crawling in there and playing on the toilet seat. Gross. One would think it would make me keep that place a little more clean but so far not so much. who has the time and motivation to clean when you're chasing a little crawly guy everywhere?

I was waiting for the day this would happen:

So Innocent.

He's been eyeing that toliet paper for some time now. scheming for the right moment i'm pretty sure. At least the roll was towards the end otherwise that would have been a biiig mess! what cutie.

Lately Keegan has loved crawling and pushing things with him. Cars, boxes, anything that can slide. It's really cute. I wonder when the amazement of the changes he is going through wears off. Like when will the day be when him pushing a toy around be normal? Right now it's delightful. so i'll enjoy it while its "new"

We had our annual Campus Crusade Winter Retreat in Sisters Oregon this last weekend. It was alot of fun. The students planned this one and it turned out really awesome! Most of the weekend was spent with students sharing how their lives have been transformed with the love Christ or sharing what they have been learning in life and the Bible lately. Keegs and I were only able to stay and listen to a little bit of it cuz he was loud and distracting but it was fun to spend time with the students. He LOVES being entertained by them. Specially the Erickson brothers. :o)

AND our annual Staff Hunt which is more like a hide and seek in Sisters. I wasn't as creative this year as the years past. I dressed Keegs up as a girl thinking that might throw people off a bit... it was weird to go into shops and refer to Keegan as a girl...i like my boy. no more dressing drag for him.

Smiley Eyes

2010-01-06T20:41:00.000-08:00

Lately Keegan has been doing this face a lot. hilarious. I can't figure out when he does it or if it means something. I think he does it as a "thank you" or maybe just a giddy happy face whenever he gets what he wants. He does it A LOT while he's eating. I love it.

My Mom made this beanie and jacket. The beanie was intended for me but my head is a little too big for it, so i thought i'd see if it fit keegan one day before we went for a walk. It's a little big for him and made him look a bit like Strawberry Shortcake. Or princess toadstool.

At winter conference we had an amazing room, it had a full hot tub. Which was amazingly fun to have but made it so that we had to jump in the tub whenever we needed to give Keegs a bath. Isn't he cute?

In other news Keegan started signing this week! The other day we were in a store and he waved at the cashier! A real floppy goofy arm wave.

Then later that day when I was feeding him dinner he looked up at the chandelier lifted his arm and very slowly and (i think) intentionally did the sign for light. We have been doing that sign for a long time. He loves looking at lights and recently started pointing at them. It was fun to see him actually do the sign for it instead of just pointing!

AND THEN today after I took him out of the bath I did the sign for "all done" and then almost immediately after me he did something that looked like the "all done" sign too! Iwas so excited i did the sign again and he too did it again! We're communicating here! I am so excited and proud! I can't wait to sign more! And I am desperate to see if it will help with his whining.

Santa and Painting

2009-12-28T10:31:00.000-08:00

I didn't realize how much of a traditional lady I am until we got to the mall and found out that their not-so-santa-looking santa cost a ton of money and we decided not to go through with it. Later in the parking lot i was nursing Keegan and got a little sentimental about the whole deal and started crying cuz their lame santa cost $20 for one photo! After a lot of calling my mom and looking at the other santas on the internet we decided to bite the bullet and pay the money for the memories and go to the awesome santa at the macy's in downtown portland. i grew up going to this santa. It's pretty cool they have a whole "santa land" down there you can walk through and then after seeing santa they stand you next to a big screen and you get to see all the many shots they took of your little one, create your own packet and even get a cd of your photos. sooo much better that the OTHEr santa. psh. It was so fun to go back to where i went as a child with my own child. He liked santa. He likes pretty much all strangers. until he realizes his parents aren't holding him...he almost cried but he held it together. way to be a man Keegan.

Keegs got a lot of great presents for christmas! He's loving his band in a box that Grandma O got him. He's big into making noise. This toy below is a stand and play toy my mom got him. Also a fav,

We got him finger paints for Christmas. He made his first masterpeice the other night. it was so fun to watch him get all messy. We hung his art in his room. It's pretty good!

Thank God for nontoxic paints!

It was a great first Christmas!

oh mom...

2009-11-30T22:27:00.000-08:00

I've been waiting 8 months in anticipation for this little guy to move, now he's going crazy. He won't stay still when I change him, i have to totally pin him down to get a diaper on him. Today he was going from sitting, to crawling, to his knees, to standing over and over again. He's a monster!! haha While i was putting clothes on him i caught myself saying "will you hold still!" I couldn't believe after so many months of craving his moving independance that those words came out of my mouth. I've got a bad case of the "the grass is always greener"

Anyhow here are som cute shots of Keegs moving around and in cute "long john" onsie with even a button butt!

We're Crawling!

2009-11-26T20:58:00.000-08:00

It's kind of funny that I've waited for this day for what seems like SOOo long and now that it's here it doesn't feel as amazing and exciting as i thought it would. BUT It's here and it IS exciting and so cool to see Keegan changing and gaining independance and confidence. To see him make a decision and go for it. I love being able to see what he is thinking by seeing where he goes! Soooo Keegs is crawling!!! Here's proof. He started inching two days ago and then yesterday took some great strides. Today he doing an occiasional crusing. It was fun to celebrate thanksgiving and have the family here to see his brand new trick!

Cloth Diapering day 3 and 4

2009-11-20T12:01:00.000-08:00

So. I finally used the Fuzzibunz!
I had some ladies in my Mommy and Me class help me figure out how to fit it well. They are so cute! I wasn't able to get the full wear out of them for Keegan because both times i've used them, Keegan was ready for a nap. So he napped in them and they withheld the naptime great but needed to be changed shortly after.

A few tips on washing that i've discovered so far:
1) Don't worry too much about stains, they come out! Even if they turn a tinge yellow the sun will get the rest out. Crazy? but True.

2) Just take out the inserts and throw them in the washer. No need to pre-soak the diaper or insert. The first couple days I was soaking and ringing out the insert. I know it sounds gross but for some reason i didn't mind doing it. (I didn't even wear gloves...eww) I guess not being grossed out is a mother-thing.

3) After wash, try an extra spin cycle. If the inserts are still damp ring them out, and then put them in the dryer. I was doing about two dyer cycles and then i decided to ring them out by hand. SO much faster to dry after that.

4) Don't dry the outter diaper in the dryer. They dry super fast on the rack/line/whatever you use. Plus it helps with overall diaper life and from keeping the velcro to fray.

5) If you have one size diapers don't forget to unsnap them to full size when drying. It may add an extra step when stuffing them comes along but they dry faster in full size.

6) Purchase more than six diapers. Six was a good number to start and test drive in. Seriously now, I think I'm sold on the whole cloth diapering idea, I just need more diapers so I can do laundry less! (www.weebunz.com)

7) If you have a Diaper Champ, no need to get a "wet bag" for home. They work like a charm and keep the smell in! I love my Diaper Champ! You can keep one hand on baby and use the other to put the diaper in the pale with one swift motion. No lift and twist stuff like the diaper genie. AND no special diaper liners, just a simple garbage bag! woo! I will invest in a wetbag for traveling though, no stink=my friend

Cloth Diaper Day 2

2009-11-17T13:06:00.000-08:00

Day #2

Today we only went through 4 diapers... I'm not sure how that worked out to be... they are difficult to tell when it's time to change because the insert is so absorbent! We don't use them for naps so that is partly why we went through so few diapers.

My Husband actually changed and put on a new cloth diaper today! He didn't have too much to say about it, I think that is a good thing! If there was something difficult or weird about them I'm sure I'd hear him make a comment but it went smoothly! And he put them on just right, not too tight, not too loose. I think that has been one thing that is hard to know about these cloth diapers. With a disposable you mindlessly stretch and velcro the diaper without worry of them being too tight. But with the cloth you can get them too tight and the elastic can leave a red mark on baby. Which is no good and I assume can lead to future chaffing. Yet if they are too loose then they leak like the other day. I suppose that is where all-in-one "grow with me" diapers aren't as ideal as fitted cloth diapers? I'm still going to use them. I LOVE the idea of him wearing them til he's potty trained.

So here is what I'm doing with the dirty diapers for now. Basically just rolling them up and throwing them into the laundry room. That won't last long I bet, i heard they can get smelly. Haven't noticed yet. I have so few the smell isn't adding up. AND because i have so few, i launder them everyday. so i just throw them in. I like how the Heiny's roll up better than the Bum G's

See how much tighter the dirty Heiny's roll than the Bum G's? I think that helps with smell.

Below is a picture of how the Heiny's advertise the laundry tabs. Just attach the velcro to itself and it should stay that way while washing. Not true. A fellow mom told me today that she attaches the velcro as if her daughter is wearing them and throws it in the machine. I'll try that and hope for no diaper chains or stains.

Here is a picture of a few of the diapers and how i keep them ready for service. I pre-stuff the inserts and pre-line the diapers with the flushies so they are ready to go. no thinking required. I hope that was a help when my husband changed Keegan yesterday.

The flushies come in a roll like pictured and you just line the diaper with it and then toss that and the poo in the toilet when soiled. SO easy! and not so yucky as scrapping poo.

After wash i toss the inserts in the dryer and hang dry the outsides. When keegan wakes up for his night feed i go in the laundry room take the inserts out or the dryer (they are usually still a little wet) and hang them for the remainder of the night. I figure I'm up and awake might as well stroll over there and get the diapers ready for morning. takes two seconds.

Still haven't used the fuzzibunz. A friend in my Live and Learn class told me she LOVES them and is glad they are snap because her velcro is starting to ware on her others. Her baby is 7 months old and she has been using them from the beginning. Her baby is just as wiggly if not more than Keegs so I guess the snaps are doable. I'm trying them day #3, tell you more about it later.

I don't have much more to say. Still liking the cloth diapering. And still finding them not as much work as i thought. I am nervous every time i think he's going to poop though. I'm dreading the first "bad" poop. bleh.

Cloth Diapering Day 1

2009-11-16T17:12:00.002-08:00

Cloth Daipers Day #1

I think it went pretty well!! Keegs looked pretty darn cute in his new big booty cloth diapers. I read somewhere that cloth diapers might slow your baby from moving around and maybe make it so they don't crawl until later but Keegs isn't crawling yet anyways so no troubles there. a little extra fabric didn't make much of a difference for Keegan today.

We had one mishap. I think I didn't fasten one on of the happy heiny's tight enough, and we had some leakage at a potluck. It could have been my lack of Velcro skills or the fact that Keegs was in the diaper or nearly 3 hours. who's to know? ha.

We had two poops. The cloth diaper liners "flushies" worked like a charm!! I love them! You just lift the liners out and flush them down the toilet. no touching or scraping the poops = one happy mom. The poop left a little mark on two of the diapers so i was pretty curious how and IF they would come out but while folding and stuffing the diapers this morning i couldn't tell which diaper had been pooped on. I thought that was pretty amazing! They came out perfectly white.

As for my thoughts on the different brands of pocket diapers..

I think I might like the Happy Heiny's the best. I love the thick velcro and how the velcro overlaps eachother. It makes it easy to roll up the diaper after use and velcro it closed on itself. A downside of them I found is that in the laundry they get all tangled up.. i tried velcroing them closed but they came apart and formed a diaper chain in the wash. The diaper that leaked earlier in the day was a happy heiny but i truly think that was my error.

The Bum Genius are pretty good too. I'm not a big fan of how small the velcro is, i think it makes it hard to trust how secure I'm just unsure i'm getting them to fit right. compared to the Happy Heiny's the Bum Genius velcro just isn't my cup of tea. They don't roll up and fasten to themselves (when the diaper is dirty) very well but maybe that's not a big deal for other people. I sort of like to do that. But they fit great and work great and I love that the pocket part of the diaper; it has a flap that closes in the insert. And their laundry taps work great, they don't attach to the diaper chain in the washer.

I didn't use the Fuzzibunz yet. Keegan has been a little cranky and wiggly lately so i'm thinking the initial fitting of the Fuzzibunz might take some time. they have adjustable elastic on the legs and snaps on the waist that i need to make sure fit securely, that might be tricky at first but once that happens i'm sure they will work just fine.

Here is a picture of my sons poop diaper! oh joy right? I just wanted to show you how poopy it was after the use of the "flushie" and tell you that YES IT ALL CAME OUT! the diaper is perfectly white now! I'll take an after photo sometime.

These cleaning solutions are what i used to wash the diapers. It was a suggestion by a friend (http://www.woollybums.blogspot.com/) I got her recipe on her blog. It's just a mixture of each of the three solutions (1 cup each) and then you just put two or three tablespoons in the washing machine. take out the pocket inserts from the diapers. lock down the laundry tabs to help insure you don't get a diaper chain, close the door and wash on hot. DONE! SO easy! I thought cloth diapers would be a ton of work but its simple.

I put the inserts in the dryer and the outsides to try on a drying rack and by morning all was dry and ready for use. the inserts took along time to dry though, i had to put them in the dryer twice and they were still a little moist. So i hung them to dry overnight and they were all dry but one by morning. i guess that is good news though right? super absorbent?

Anyhow i think the first day went pretty well! He wore the diapers for probably two and half hours max each. one leak. (my fault-pretty sure) two poops. no stains. happy baby! successful cloth diapering day. I think we used a total of 5 diaper today because we didn't use them during naps or bedtime. I wasn't ready to venture that far. So far we only have 6 diapers so i'm glad we're doing the system that we are for now. soon i hope to invest in more so we can launder less often. But I'm excited to be saving the landfills diapers six cloth diapers at time!

hope the info helps. if anything its good for me to process my experience. I'm surprised how much i enjoy using them! I thought I would kind of dread every diaper change but I get excited when its time for a diaper change! haha oh the little things a mom takes joy in.

Day two coming soon.

Cloth Diapering?

2009-11-15T12:53:00.000-08:00

There's a whole world out there that I was too overwhelmed with motherhood to even think about before now. It's called "Natural Parenting."
Who knew what I was putting on my babies bum was unnatural parenting? who are these people telling me how i parent is unnatural?
anyhow, i'm discovering an aspect of so-called "natural parenting" and it's called... DUN DUn duun.... cloth diapering.

Once I babysat for a family that did cloth diapering. I think I was around 11 and the baby had to have been just a couple months old. the mom was around the house doing errands or something, so when baby cried crazy she would come and help. I remember the first day when she showed me how to cloth diaper. I was freaked out by the saftey pins. and stink. and wetness. but was only 11 and so i didn't get stressed out. who gets stressed as a preteen? not me.
so when it came to having my own child and thinking about cloth diapering that memory is what came to mind. The thought if it made me a little stressed. "No thank you" thats what Brent and I both thought. Plus, Keegs is baby number one, there were enough new things to overcome i wasn't ready for the cloth diaper challenge. UNTIL now. He's nearly 8 months old and i am JUST NOW starting for feel more grounded in this mommy business. I've been doing some research and learning about this whole daunting cloth business. They have some great new cloth diapers out there now! ones that are basically as easy as disposible just but plus a laundry wash. Or at least that is what the ladies in my Mommy And Me class say, and all the advertisements, and the people on YouTube.com
so i've decided to try it out. i mean they are DARN CUTE. Cost effective. I love the idea of buying cloth diapers for Keegan that will last til he's potty trained AND use them for our next child+. I had no idea that according to a study done by the Women's Enviromental Network: "Disposable diapers are the third largest single consumer item in landfills, and represent about 4% of solid waste. In a house with a child in diapers, disposables make up 50% of household waste." Crazy. So here goes.

I took a leap and bought 6 different cloth diapers this week. All "Pocket Diapers" from what I have researched they are the most "family friendly" (ie. daddy and grandparent friendly) ones out there. supposedly they won't have as much of an odor problem which is nice for my smell sensative husband and curious Charlie-dog.

I'll be writing about the ins-and-outs for a bit i think. So sorry for those of you that might read this and not be interested. I figure i have no clue how many people actually peek at this blog so i might as well just write about it. AND since researching i've found that other mom-blogs have been the most helpful in finding information on cloth diapering so if i can be that resource for other curious moms then, great!

First Firestation Trip!

2009-11-11T22:10:00.000-08:00

This last weekend we went to a Lakeside Bible Camp Staff reunion party on Whidbey Island. One of the people that currently work at the camp is a volunteer firefighter and so he took all of us to the firestation to let the kids romp through the firetruck. It seemed like they had a fun time. we took it as a photo opportunity. we're discovering the joy of having a baby and a cool camera = lots of fun photo opps. here's a few.

What a cutie.

On another note. Keegan has been pretty fun lately. He's mumbling all the time saying things like "baboo" "mom mom" "Da da da" and just plain trying to have conversations. last night at the dinner table my friend Christine asked Keegan if he really could talk but he was just keeping it secret and he shook his head "no" as if he was answering her question. it was hilarious.

Tonight at the dinner table it was babbling on and on and laughing at his own babbling as if he was telling a funny story. He is a real kick.

2009-10-28T16:11:00.000-07:00

!!!!HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!
I've been wanting a cute garden gnome for a couple of year now but it hasn't really happened. we can't find the perfect one for our yard! and i dont think Brent really like them... soo this year i got my perfect Gnome...

Here's Keegan at our baby class!! look at all the cute babies in their costumes... priceless...

uh oh Georgette what do you think you're doing...

AH!

Keegan These Days

2009-10-25T21:51:00.000-07:00

Keegan had his first "uh-oh" he pulled the plant off the stand. I wondered how Brent would handle Keegan's messes and he did great with it! we laughed it off and moved the plant up higher. So proud of my exploring son and understanding husband!

These days Keegan cruises all over the house and backyard in his walker! He LOVES it! He could chase Charlie or a ball most of the day in his walker.

This is a typical Keegan face lately, accompanied with a monkey "woo" grunt. It looks funny in a photo but in person it's pretty cute.

A couple time a week Keegan and I walk to the park and go swinging. Another favorite of his. He could be in a horrible mood until he gets on that swing. It's odd how he doesn't like the house swing we have for him but he loves the outdoor one!

Keegans first co-bath

2009-10-05T13:48:00.000-07:00

Some friends Kelly and Ryan came to visit this weekend! Carter and Keegan took a bath together last night and it was sooo funny to watch them play in the tub! Keegan LOVES to splash! When he is in the tub thats all he does. I get SOAKED every night. Kelly and I got really wet last night while both of the boys were splashing and having so much fun.

Keegan found his toes!

2009-09-13T21:57:00.000-07:00

Charlie and Keegan hanging out in the living room... i think they are going to be great pals. Keegan lights up when Charlie is around and Charlie just loves to lick and clean up after Keegs

This last week Keegan found his toes! Its been fun to watch him play with his feet and suck on his toes. It's great too that he can entertain him self for a few minutes.

Labor day weekend we spent with some if my college friends down in sisters oregon. it was a lot of fun but too short. we're expanding, two babies and one on the way!

Keegan celebrated his friends OSU game last weekend too. I was excited to dress him in his Orange and crack out the OSU gear friends bought us. look at that cool OSU Bottle and onsie!

Labor day we also spent time with Dean and Christel and their gals. Amy chased Charlie around all weekend. When they were leaving Amy grabbed some of charlies treat and put him on his leash and informed us that Charlie would be going home with them. We thought that was really cute that she packed him all up. We got to keep him though.

Cannon Beach!

2009-08-27T20:52:00.001-07:00

I grew up going to the coast with my family and for the first time I got to take MY family to the same coast to the same cabin! Not sure how much longer we'll be able to do that as my parents are thinking the cabin might not be in the family much longer, so it was fun to bring Keegan up to the coast.

We did most of the typicals. Walked to Haystack rock, strolled around downtown, bought taffy from Bruce's. Sat in the sand watching Charlie chase the birds. Gave Keegan a bath in the the same sink that I too took a bath in as a baby. Christine worked at a cafe down there this summer so we got to spend some time with her too! Good times. I love the coast. Here's come pics.

haha.

Keegan misses his cousins

2009-08-19T13:50:00.000-07:00

Some sweet shots of Keegs and his cousins.

I love this last picture of Hudson and Keegan. There were lots of pictures before that where they are happy and laughing together and then after a few minutes Hudson realized Keegan was sitting on his beloved blanket haha. Keegan's like "whats happening?"

We miss the family but its good to be back home and have some stability in life. It took Keegan just about two weeks to get readjusted and back on a good sleeping pattern. I'm soo thankful for that.

Our good friends loaded us their Johnney Jump up and it has been so fun to watch Keegan jump and jump away. Not to mention give our arms a rest from all the jumping shananigans. He LOVES it! He jumps and jumps and laughs and screeches! Its the best invention!

We also started Keegan on some rice cereal since we got home! I'm excited to start him on some food but also feeling a little sad about the process of starting to wean him. I know it still will be a while but its his first step to becoming seperate and not needing me as much!

Keegans First real laugh

2009-07-11T11:47:00.000-07:00

Keegan did his first real laugh the other day. He's been doing the screaming with excitement thing until Brent dropped his toy on him the other day. It was pretty cute. Don't worry the toy is pretty soft.

On another note, our summer project team has been doing hiking this week. I think they hiked a total of 23 miles in three days. something crazy like that. One of the days the climbed a mountain (one of the Twin Sisters) just outside our lodge. I got to stand in our parking lot and see them through binoculars at the top! It was pretty fun. The last day keegan and I got to participate because it was a shorter hike to Oozle Falls. It was a pretty walk along the river. The National Park hikes aren't as impressive as i thought they would be though, the trails are practically paved the whole way and even have rock stairs. I guess they have to be because they are so well traveled. Here's a pic of the fam on the way to the falls. Keegan did great! He loves the Bjorn and hiking around. Its the one of the rare times he's quiet and happy.

ps. this is a funny ps but for all you moms you know how i feel. I'm ALMOST to my pre-pregnancy weight! just a couple more pounds. It's nice to fit into my clothes again but i'm still unsatisfied with the way i look. hopefully by the end of the summer i'll be feeling okay.

A few summer photos

2009-07-11T10:31:00.000-07:00

Can you find the Baby?
This was from our first Estes Park Rock climbing trip. It was a little cold so we had Keegan in his snow suit, which worked perfect. He slept most of the time.

He's doing great with tummy time these days. His neck is getting stronger and he's not fussing as much when we lay him down. He figured out how to roll onto his back though so tummy time ends up being more of a roll over time.

At the beginning of Project we didn't have a place to lay Keegan down in the Lodge so we found an apples box for him to rest in. It was cute but didn't last long, he quickly got too long for it and we bought a real travel bed for him. He likes that much better.

This is our last week of project! Then we're off to steamboat colorado for a week with all the O'Neills and then to Ft. Collins for our national Campus Crusade conference at CSU. We're staying with Miles and Emme, which should be a lot of fun! Tell ya more later!

Keegan Poops

2009-07-05T16:08:00.000-07:00

I finally got Keegan on video when he's doing his business. I love the faces he makes when he's pooping. he's funny. i've been meaning to post more often while we're here on project but time goes by so quick and Keegan is often not in the mood to let me do anything on the computer. I'm lucky right now he's in the bjorn looking at the computer with me.

2009-05-25T20:52:00.000-07:00

Keegan's first swim

2009-05-25T20:50:00.000-07:00

Tummy time...

2009-05-25T20:39:00.000-07:00

Tummy Time!

Keegan at 7 weeks

2009-05-05T11:50:00.000-07:00

Keegan is 7 weeks today! He's been smiling a lot lately specially when he hears my voice, which is so fun! It's odd that he recognizes me but I suppose we spend all day together.

Brent took this photo of Keegan last night after he had peed through his diaper all over Brent and himself. That was Brent's first time getting peed on. 'Bout time if you ask me!
You can't really tell in this picture but KJ's had a rash on either side of his upper cheeks for the last week or so. Today we're going to the doctors to have it checked out. He doesn't seem to be in pain or to notice the rash so that is good but it will be nice to know what it is. Seems like KJ has had a never ending saga with stuff on his face. First all the newborn dry skin. then the newborn acne and now this. I think he only has had a clear face for a couple of days. poor guy.

Keegan 6 Weeks in Review

2009-04-30T17:23:00.000-07:00

Keegan! In his preemie clothes. I loved this little onsie. Now looking back at his first photos in his preemie clothes i think he was always a little too cold. We had no idea what was a good amount of clothes for him. poor guy, i wonder how much of all that crying those first weeks contributed to him just being cold!

Keegan two weeks in, still pretty wrinkley and old man looking.. but a cutey. This was a rare photo to find his eyes open.

I found this cute pilots hat for sale at a used kid shop and LOVED it. That in combo with the baby legs make my favorite outfits.

Charlie is starting to get used to Keegan but he still gets pretty jealous when we lay keegan on the ground for some play time. He gets all in our faces and starts licking everyone.

Keegan's first smiles came out about three weeks after he was born. It's soo fun to see what makes him smile. All the hardship of the day is paid back in seconds with his little wide grin.

Keegan had play date with Fiona our neighbor. Things started off great with her napping and him playing with her hair and then all went bad. But it was pretty cute. Fiona is 4 weeks younger than Keegan, that will be fun if they get to grow up together.

I can't believe almost 7 weeks have gone by since Keegan was born! It's gone by really fast and he's getting bigger and chubbier by the day! I'm starting to get used to his rhythm and getting some freetime of my own! Today I got to go on a walk with a friend and workout! I'm excited to start excercising...! It's been hard to be so sedintary and not be able to do anything atheltic to get rid of this post partum body. Our summer assignment will help hopefully with that too, we're going on Lifelines summer project and going to be doing a lot of outdoor activities for the project! yay!

2009-03-26T22:17:00.000-07:00

here's a video Brent took of Keegan the other day.
Keegan at 6 days old.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceytJqnEtGE

Keegan's First Week!

2009-03-26T16:55:00.000-07:00

The first week of Keegan James O'Neill

12 Loads of laundry

60 ish diapers

meeting the family

4 spit baths

15 "blow outs"

21+ outfits

first walk outside

3 times peeing on mom

once almost on dads face

once on grandma

many hours of meals

lots of sleeping

a few sleepless nights

many photo shoots

lots of joy.

New Family.

Keegan James O'Neill!!

2009-03-21T10:36:00.000-07:00

Keegan is here!!!

He arrived St. Patricks Day, March 17th and 11:49 pm. 6 lbs 6 oz, 20 hours of labor, 3 and a half or pushing. The hardest thing i have ever done! BUT we are sooo excited to have Keegan here and the feeling of having him placed in my arms right after all that hard work was well worth the wait and pain.

He's been such a sweet baby so far. We had a scare the first day he came home he wouldn't eat for nearly 22 hours. He was tramatized from his circumsicion we think. But now he's eating and sleeping so well!

He was a lot smaller than we planned though so some family went out and bought him some premie clothes for him for the next couple of days/weeks.

Charlie doesn't really know what to make of him so far. He's really curious, specially when Keegan makes noises. He does really well with him though. The picture above is Charlies first time checking out Keegan.

We're doing well now! We were pretty overwhelmed at first but things are calming down and starting to make more sense. We are pretty tired though.

38 weeks...

2009-03-10T20:52:00.000-07:00

38 weeks... maybe 39... depending on which doctor of mine you talk to. To keep my sanity I perfer 38 weeks.

My recent doctors appointment said that the baby is still content in my belly. I did have a bit of high blood pressure so they are having me come in again friday for another check up just to make sure I'm not developing preeclampsia. I don't think I am though because high blood pressure is the only symptom I have so far.

This might turn out to be a small but heres a photo from a photographer that came in to take pregnancy shots for her portfolio. I like it, kinda looksl like a magazine photo.

Recently I've developed these itchy little red bumps on my legs and arms! I asked my doctor about it because i was worried it might be PUPPS but she said it was just estrogen overflow. They are driving me crazy. I hope these little bumps mean that my body is producing lots of estrogen because the baby is coming soon!

I also bought some raspberry leaf tea this weekend. I heard that if you drink it close to your due date it will get things soft and moving down there in preparation for the baby. Maybe even induce labor. I was pretty skeptical about it but the tea lady said there was a caution on the tea order for pregnant ladies. So that made me hopeful. LETS GO RASPBERRY TEA LEAF! do your stuff.

Here is a photo taken by a good friend, Noel, she's been asking to take belly photos for a while. I finally felt big enough to take some good shots. I was also getting a bit worried this little guy would come without warning and that we wouldnt get to take any shots! So last weekend she came over and we had a mini photo shoot. I've only seen a few but this one is a favorite.

Baby Photographer!

2009-03-04T10:59:00.000-08:00

One of our friends gave us the name of a photographer friend of theirs that needed to fill a portfolio with new shots of maternity and baby photos. She is doing it for free! So of course we said we'd help her out. hehe
She came yesterday for literally 25 minutes and took photos. It was such a quick session i was a little skeptical of how the photos were going to turn out. We don't tend to be the most photo genic people... haha BUT to our suprise they turned out really nice! You can check them out at her photo blog:

http://cardasphotography.typepad.com/blog/2009/03/expecting-lindsey-and-brent.html

She plans on coming back right when the baby is born to take newborn shots. Some will be the same poses for us, only with our little guy in them! Sounds fun.
Also this weekend a student friend of mine is going to take some more prego pictures. She's a pretty artsy photographer so I'm really looking forward to it. Should be fun!

Well my belly has dropped and the baby is in position. This might be TMI but the doctor said I'm "softening" so my body is preparing the way for this guy to come out! The last couple of days I've been feeling a lot of pevic pressure and a few sporatic contractions! Nothing to worry about, I think we still have plenty of time. I'm getting nervous though. Are we really ready to be parents? Can I do labor and delivery? I guess we'll find out.

36 weeks!

2009-02-27T19:30:00.000-08:00

Baby Showers! Here is a shot of some ladies from church/corvallis/my staff team celebrating the coming of our little one with a tea party! Karen, the lady with the glasses next to me hosted this with her daughter Julie(who is on our staff team) for us. It was a lot of fun!

This was the portland baby shower with family and a few friends! My Neice Haley (in the pink next to me) came and was so excited to help and participate in the ONLY LADIES event! She was a big help passing the presents to me. So cute.

This was with some of the CRU gals! We played the "guess what the baby ate" game where you guess what kind of melted candy bar is in the diaper... but with a TWIST! The gals that guessed the most correct had to eat the candy from the SCENTED diaper. It was so funny, and gross. Kylie (the lady sitting up) almost puked.

Just a fun shot of Charlie looking pretty sly... he is a funny dog. Brent recently taught him how to shake. He learned it in about 20 mintues. Such a smart little dog!

Here's the latest of the belly! Just finishing up 36 weeks! I've made all my baby appointments until the due day (March 21st) hopefully we wont have to schedule more... I think for the next three mondays i have two doctor appointments a day. For check ups on the baby and meet and greets with potential pediatricians. We also have two more weeks of baby classes! So much baby stuff! Last thursday we were supposed to take a tour of the hospital but the weather changed from 60 degrees to snowing overnight and i guess it induced a bunch of women into labor so all the rooms were full and untourable! crazy! The classes make me nervous.. we had to practice our breathing techniques last week squeezing little bags of ice so we could experience pain in the midst of breathing and i could barely handle it. I'm hoping that is because i knew it was voluntary pain, but I'm not to sure. AH!

Looking a little tired...

33 Weeks Pregnant... i think...

2009-02-03T15:18:00.001-08:00

We had our Annual Winter retreat in sisters this past weekend! It was a lot of fun, such a great group of students, wonderful engaging speaker that encouraged us to run after the Lord. It was sweet.

We did a staff (hide-and-go-seek) hunt so here's a picture of our staff team and retreat cooks. We disguised ourselves to make it more difficult to seek us in the town of sisters...

33 weeks pregnant! Seems like i should be further along...is this taking long or is it just me?

Pregnancy Timeline so far!

2009-01-11T16:51:00.000-08:00

So, I'm 31 weeks along i think and I'm just starting to become pretty uncomfortable. I get winded really easily now whenever i walk and feel as if i need to go to the bathroom all the time... I hear it just gets worse which I'm not looking forward to but at least i only have about 9 weeks left.

We found out I was pregnant in seattle while we were spending time with the whole O'Neill family, just after my birthday!

Here I am at 10 weeks pregnant in front of our then, guest room, soon to be nursery. Not showing yet!

13 weeks! I was starting to feel like i was showing already but obviously not so much

16 weeks and starting to show!
Here's our 20 weeks ultrasound... it's a BOY!

23 weeks and starting to pop out!

26 weeks... and in maternity clothes!

28 weeks and feeling huge! Notice the nursery starting to form!? we got our crip and some chinese lanterns.

30 weeks! The Nursery is almost finished and I'm feeling HUGE!

Here's our nursery! We still have a few things we'd like to add to it and a lot more to get for the baby! But we got a lot of great things from Miles and Emme, including this Bumbo chair that Charlie tried it out.

Baby's First Video!

2008-11-02T09:51:00.000-08:00

For those of you interested, here's our little one!! Little boy O'Neill! It was so fun to get to see him! He was very active and moving all around inside me. His profile is pretty cute... can't wait to see what he'll look like! I'm really enjoying feeling him bounce around inside my belly. Just as i was writing that sentance he gave a little kick. Brent felt him move for the first time last tuesday night.
Well, hope y0u enjoy the video! And can understand what you're looking at...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsz-H0wpk3M

The start of school!

2008-10-07T20:58:00.000-07:00

Here's some students putting together water bottles. we handed out nearly 600 water bottles and i have no idea how many freshman survival kits this year. we had a LOT of fun meeting new students and welcoming them to campus, playing sports and games. Its been my favorite start to the year so far.

Here's a picture of Alaina giving a testimony of what her freshman year was like at our Freshman Cru. Matt and Jen asked her questions about her experience as a new student at OSU and how CRU fit into her college career and how the Lord used our ministry in her life. It was fun to hear. Alaina's great! she's a fifth year student and is praying about joining staff!

The 16 and a half week belly picture! I'm starting to stick out a bit... its odd going on campus and having a little belly out there, i often wear scarves to cover it because it feels weird being pregnant on campus still. I go in on the 28th to see if there's a little guy or a little gal in there swimming around! We're excited to find out and will post our news when we know!

Nieces and Nephew on the 4th!

2008-07-07T23:08:00.000-07:00

A School Year in Review continued!

2008-07-01T17:37:00.000-07:00

This picture might be a little hard to make out. Its from our Regional Winter Conference. This year OSU won the lip sync. We danced to Circle of Life from Lion King. Paul (from our staff team) is holding the sign up top, he’s pretending to be baby samba. We believe his lack of clothes was a big part to our winning. This year 54 students came to the winter conference, that is more than OSU has sent in a long time. Many of the students jumped off the fence of a mediocre commitment to the Lord and ran towards Him as their Savior and Father.

This next picture is Lindsey with some other ladies at a women’s retreat. The women’s ministry team completely ran this and even spoke! We has a great time. The girl on the far left is Layla she accepted Christ at one of the weekly CRU meetings this year!

This is from our spring break trip to Utah! We’re not all pictured but what a fun group! We learned a lot about the Mormon religion on this trip, it was good to explore their religion and to share about our relationships with Christ with them!

This is some Epic guys on the way to Epic Conference. Aaron (right) was the student leader this year and is passing the baton onto Chase (back right) Please pray for Chase!
Brent loves the Crux retreat! I think its because he gets to go rafting almost every weekend to prepare with the Crux team. What a tough job! This year these men lead the charges along with Brent: Keith, Luke and Ben. At the retreat men are challenged physically, socially and Spiritually. It was a good turn out and great sunny weather for their outdoor pursuits!

These are Lindsey’s senior gals! Some are returning though. Alaina is the gal doing the Vogue. She’s in Australia right now on summer project!

These are a graduating seniors. Each year we pray and commission our seniors sending them to the world to make disciples of all nations. This year we gave them certificates remind them of this commission and to graduate them from CRU! The blond gal in pink is Rachel, she's getting married in 5 days.. on my birthday!

A Year In Review!

2008-07-01T17:09:00.000-07:00

Our OSU Staff team started off the year with prayer and excitement!
This picture is Brent with Aaron the Epic leader, discussing their dreams for the school year. At our vision retreat.

This next picture is Aaron, (who is interning with us next year) Chris, and Shawn modeling the lovely Freshman survival kit laundry bags! We had 1000 students to meet and share Christ because of those lovely bags!

For the First time The Epic Movement students joined fall retreat! Brent’s Brother was the speaker for that retreat. Everyone really enjoyed his teaching. We really enjoyed having all the O’Neill’s in town!

Students from our Halloween Cru! The guy in the middle with the hat is Daniel he dressed as Allan(on our staff team) for Halloween. And he’s going to lead worship next year!

This is Noel! Lindsey disciple her this year. She has grown in depth of Love and commitment to the Lord and now she’s on summer project in Tahoe! She got baptized in the lake at the end of June down there!

Crazy students at our Christmas Party! Neha is second from the right, she is one of the international ladies Lindsey got to spend time with this year! Kylie is to the left of Neha, she’s on summer project in Venezuela right now!

Adena, Brent’s Assistant Director left for a year to serve in Costa Rica! We miss her a lot but we're glad she is where the Lord wants her right now. Please pray for the team of 5 americans over there! (Adena, Leah, Lauren, Jason and Jared)

Nathan married Julie and added another member to our staff team! Way to go! We’re hoping they will join us when school starts back up in the fall!

I am thankful to have Simone (from Cameroon) and Rukshana (from Sri– Lanka) in my life. Please pray for Rukshana she doesn’t know if she will be able to afford OSU next year! Please pray that the Lord has her do what will be best for her schooling and relationship with Him.

End of the School year...

2008-06-06T13:25:00.001-07:00

We had an end of the year Staff Breakfast hosted by a lovely lady named Pam that goes to our church. It was a delicious gourmet meal and fun to remember the year together! As well as say goodbye for the summer and to Paul! Who's transfering to Seattle Metro team. (from the Left is Mary and Allan flemming, my handsome husband Brent, me, Kristen and Paul)

We also had an end of the year camping trip with some students at a place in salem called Silver falls! This was one of the ten falls we saw on a very long but beautiful hike we took around the park. I got poison oak about 20 mintues after this picture was taken. boo.
Here's a picture of a group of Senior gals that I've been walking with for a couple years now but more consistantly this year since i've been on campus full time. I'm so sad to see them go! A couple are staying for another year, i'm so thankful for that. They definatley feel more like good friends then they do college students 4 years younger that me. (from the Left: Meredith, Stephanie, Peggy, me, Jackie and Alaina)

And lastly here's some freshman ladies that I've been hanging out with all year. We had a potluck and Kristen's house(we lead this communitry group together-shes the one in the pink stripes) This group of ladies were soo fun to meet with, We've seen the Lord give them a greater excitment and commitment to Him this year as well as excitement and urgency in their hearts to share the gospel with others! fun stuff. (from the Left: Caley, Kristen, Michele, Kaitlyn, Siera, me, Jen and Elizabeth. E is the current Portland Rose Court Queen! Cool huh?)

2008-04-07T21:57:00.000-07:00

SPRING BREAK UTAH!!

Here's the Ladies!! We went to Cousins the resturant on the way down to utah. it was big, good food. "Howdy Cousin!"

One of the staff in salt lake city is apart of the outdoor ministry in Campus Crusade. He took us on snowshoeing as we discussed the topic of bonding as a team, in relationships and with the Lord. It was really fun.

Monday of the trip we went to a center that teaches refugee kids how to read and speak english. It was really fun. A cool part was that I went there in October for a new staff training trip, there i met the little gal with the pink boots in the middle, esperansa. When i first met her she didn't speak any english and now she speaks pretty well! Isn't that incredible?

2008-04-07T21:38:00.000-07:00

We we able to go to the beach a couple days before our Salt Lake City spring break trip with the students. It was really fun to see charlie playing on the beach and chasing birds. We found out he really likes playing catch with sticks! which is a nice and cheap find-anywhere-toy!

March Madness

2008-03-16T17:02:00.000-07:00

Here's the lovely ladies of my community group! Plus a few missing... We're having fun getting to know each other and Christ.

Sometimes Charlie sits more like a human than a dog. It's pretty fun. we're looving having a dog! He's been a lot of fun.

March 5th my Dad had a Birthday! Haley my niece and I decorated his cake... but we used this new icing that you put in the mircowave for a little bit and squeeze out... we put it in the mirco a little too long cuz it melted all the frosting underneath is... Dad had a melty birthday.

We also had our winter retreat this last month... Matt in this picture is a college friend that lives in sisters where we have the reteat. He's pretty fun, it was good to spend time with him and his wife Leslie and my other college friend Christine that weekend, she helped me cook!

Brent's 33rd birthday!

2008-01-26T22:58:00.001-08:00

It snowed the day before Brent's Birthday which made it fun to wake up and have snow for his 33rd. We had an art and cocktails party with friends. It was a lot of fun!! We have some great artists for friends and were left with some great art to hang on the walls. It was nice to host another thing in our new house! it's perfect for hosting!!

2008-01-20T18:46:00.000-08:00

Some snapshots of winter conference and christmas!

We spent an afternoon snowshoeing with Kathy, Brent's brest friend Dean, christel, and their daughter amy. that was fun!

Winter conference was a fun time to spend with the girls! The theme was masterpeice and off to the side were blank polorids to pose in.

The little gally with the sun glasses is Noel, one of my new good friends.

Addition to the Family!

2007-12-04T16:55:00.000-08:00

This is our new puppy Charlie!! We shamefully bought him doggie clothes for our CRU Christmas party. I'm not sure if i'm proud of that fact, but he sure did look cute.

He's been really fun to have around. He's half Pug Half Boston Terrier. So he has some spunk but then crashes.

Brent and I took a train trip to centrailia for our anniversary and stayed at the Mcminnemins there in town. It was really relaxing, fun and romantic. It snowed!

On The Dechutes River with friends!

2007-08-22T21:29:00.000-07:00

Here we are! Brent and I; Evan, Michelle and their pup; Ari and Mossimo; Matt and Leslie; Duane and Ann; and Joe and Shannon! Off for a lovey semi-rainy two day trip on the river!

Matt brought his kite just in case the wind kicked in. It was fun watching it fly above us as we were rafting away.

Brent and I! Brent rowed our raft the WHOLE two days. He's buff. Part of the time i rode on the mountain of gear so that friends could join us on our boat! It was fun.

More Summer Pictures!

2007-08-20T17:37:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of Brent and I during my New Staff Training comencement ceremony in Colorado. CCC hosted a fancy catered dinner for us! I got to wear a new dress that I picked out with Emme. (my sister-in-law)

Here are the 2007 New Staff From and Going to Oregon!!
From the Left:
Kristen, Claire, Melissa, Megan, Bethany, Me, A guy who's name i forgot(in the back), David and Shannon!

Home Sweet Home

2007-08-08T16:01:00.000-07:00

So, i forgot my user name and password for a while...haha thats why there haven't been many new updates.

WE'RE BACK in for corvallis! It was so nice to come home after 7 weeks of conference and a week of traveling out house was nice to walk into. It feels like home here in this town too. Not a whole lot is happening in corvallis though, friends are in and out of town but i guess so are we.

so far since we've been home we've unpacked, gone to church, seen a friends new little baby boy, went rafting and saw a play in the MU Quad! (thats like Oregon States main part of campus) it was really fun. now we're off to the beach to see my family and Christine! I'm excited. I haven't seen them in what seems like forever.

Well we all know people like pictures so here they come!

Here is a picture from our Staff Conference in Colorado.. Lots of people, and that was a low night!

On the way home Brent, Mick, Kathy and I stopped to have dinner in this cute Baravian town! It was so fun!

And lastly, a pictures of our little corvallis rafting trip with friends. We had a little BBQ on the side of the river. one of our friends even brought their puppy on board! He was cute and didn't fall in. We took a wrong turn on this river though and missed our take out by a good couple football feilds, so we had to jump out and walk the raft up stream! haha. BUT on our little wrong turn we did see an otter. so maybe it was worth it.

A Night on the Town!

2007-05-23T10:05:00.000-07:00

Last night at 4:30 we got a call from our friends Keith and Kate inviting us to go to Hairspray the broadway tour! On the spur of the moment we had to decide if we were going to make support phone calls or enjoy a night at the theatre! OF COURSE WE WENT!

Watching plays is one of my(lindsey's) favorite things to do; and as a child i loved hairspray the movie with ricki lake. hehe

So we got all dressed up and showed up at the Sigma Epsilon house for a night on the town with the greeks! Those greek women know how to dress! They were cute! hehe So fun.

2007-05-12T20:24:00.000-07:00

We have officially become a blogging couple!! Welcome to our blog. I hope we can keep updated for you.

LOVE, Brent and Lindsey O'Neill!