It's been long enough...

And we actually did have some fun this summer, so I need to document it! Well, at least show some pictures, that is.

Towards the end of july we went camping with Josh's parents and some of their friends. Josh's brother has a little pop up trailer that he let us borrow, otherwise I'm pretty sure this trip wouldn't have happened. Camping with an almost 2 year old and a four month old in the rain does not sound like fun-unless you are in a trailer with a soft, dry bed!


Um, this is the only picture of David I got. And he's so bundled up in blankets you can barely even see him. Babies are really not that exciting on a camping trip. Sorry David.

Carden takes after his Dad and loves loves RC cars. I wish I could understand this, but if it makes him happy, then I'm happy. I'm pretty sure Carden is going to lose his voice if he doesn't stop making car sounds. He growls like an engine all day.

Grandma brought marshmallow guns for everyone. Carden thought it looked fun but was very confused when the marshmallow kept falling out.

Love this boy.

We haven't had one of these pictures for awhile. And I think we can wait awhile until the next one too.

Introducing 'The HO-GER'

Want to Impress your guests? Glue this recipe to your 'fridge.

A Ho-ger is an eloquent mutt-like mix between a Hot dog and a Burger. Here's how you do it, take your favorite sliced bread, Salt and Vinegar Chips, sliced tomatoes, BBQ'd wieners, Guacamole, pepperoncinis, and Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce, and good company...You won't be disappointed

HogersAreTheBomb.com!

Sweet babies...

And finally...

Bet you didn't even notice the baby on the last one, right? You were too distracted by that HAIR! Have you ever seen hair so red/orange/gold and shiny? I didn't think so. Poor kid. I hope he doesn't hate it too much.

Five blood draws, one urgent care visit, one 9-hour ER trip, one urine test, one kidney ultrasound, and two EKGs laters, we finally got results from all of David's testing: nothing. He's fine. This past week has been a NIGHTMARE for poor Davey Gravey. We've been testing his blood since he left the hospital because he was anemic and had elevated electrolytes and bilirubin. Well this last blood test also showed that his potassium levels were in the critical range. It's easy to get a false level for potassium so they had us draw the blood again. And when that came back high, we had to draw it again and again, and my poor baby with the chubby arms is quite a fighter and does not give up his blood easily. When he had elevated levels at hte ER, everyone went into panic mode, because it's abig deal to have high potassium, so we had to do all of these other test, but luckily everything came back normal so they tested his blood one more time, and we finally got a good blood draw and the right number. Anyway it's over now, thank goodness, and everything is apparently fine.

David had his four month check-up last week and the results are in! He is chunky! Everyone at the ER was amazed that he was a premie, because he doesn't look like one now! Yay for chunky babies!

Length: 22.5

Weight: 12.7

He's now 10th percentile for weight for a four month old and 3rd percentile for length. He's on the charts for his age already! This is a big deal for a premie, because they usually don't catch up for a long time, so we are excited around here!



Holy cuteness, right? I know.

Heavy Load

Anybody want to guess how much this whopper weighs?

Carden update

CARS? CARS? CARS? CAAAARRRRSSSSS!!!!!!!!!

He is just a little obsessed with the first movie. And now that the second one is out and every store is filled with 40 isles of cars stuff, shopping with him is an absolute nightmare.

Carden is almost two now and I just can't believe it! Every day this kid surprises me with the things he can do! I refer to him as a constant wave of destruction and he really truly is. Our house is always torn apart and about 80% of it can be blamed on him. He definitely keeps me busy!

He loves to take things apart. Somehow he discovered that pens (like bic pens) have two parts to them, so now I am always grabbing a pen just to find that the ink has been removed from it. I have no idea how he discovered this or how he manages to take it out.

He loves to help mama fold laundry, meaning that I fold it and he grabs handfuls of it and runs it back to the dryer. I pretty much have to put away one item at a time, because once it is folded he makes a run for it to "help" me.

He has been able to remove the outlet plugs since he was about 16 months old. I can't even take these off! One day, he grabbed the vacuum, moved it to the living room, took out the outlet plug and plugged in the vacuum in and pretended he was cleaning. This was a couple months ago and I couldn't even get after him I was so surprised.

He loves pushing the kitchen chairs around the house to get whatever it is he wants. There will be times when all four chairs are in a different room in the house. He is now able to push a chair over to the front door and unlock it to make an escape. We have a chime whenever the door opens now, but it's definitly time to add another lock.

He LOVES his baby brother and always wants to know where he is. If David is crying, he tries to pick him up and he always asks to hold him. he loves to point out all of David's body parts and repeats them again and again. Eyes. Eyes. Eyes. He will say the same one over and over until you acknowledge that yes. David has eyes too.

such as big boy now!

David Update

Boy have I gotten behind on blogging! This David is becoming quite the little chunk at 11 lbs now! We took him to church for the first time last week and eveyone kept commenting on how tiny he his, but compared to two months ago he is huge! I guess I forget that he is still pretty small.

David has decided to get an early start in making life difficult for his mama. About a month ago, he was having problems with his pooping. In that he pooped WAAAAY too much. He was literally filling his diaper every thirty minutes and there was no way for me to keep up with it. One night after a feeding I changed his diaper 4 times before I finally just gave up and let him sleep in it. So after doing some research on the internets, I stopped eating all dairy and a little part of me died at that moment. It is so hard to know what to eat when you can't eat dairy. Especially since cereal is the MAIN food group in our house.

One day I actually started crying because I was so hungry and nothing sounded good except dairy. when David came early, one of my first thoughts was how unfair that I was missing out on two months of all you can eat ice cream every night. So as you can see, i'm a little upset about it.

But I'm getting used to it now. I like rice milk on my cereal and now that popsicle season is here it doesn't seem quite as bad. I've had some milk twice since I went off and both times David screamed in pain all day, so that also makes it totally worth it. little stinker.

There really aren't any David updates. He still can't do anything exciting, but he is definitely becoming more aware of us. Oh! and this is exciting! He finally grew into a sleep sack we have and since then he has been sleeping 6-7 hours straight at night. LOVE IT!

I've got bedhead, yes I do!

The hair is coming in! We might even get a haircut before the end of the year!

40 weeks today!

Ha! Boy am I glad I'm not still pregnant...!

This little man is seriously chunking it up right now. At his last dr's appointment a week and a half ago he weighed 6 lbs 7 oz. So he gained 22 oz in 14 days. Awesome! And now I'm sure he's closer to 7 1/2 pounds. He outgrew all of his preemie clothes about a week ago, and I think we'll be out of the newborn diapers soon.

And he's learning how to do so many things already. Like poop 12-15 times a day! (absolutely not kidding. it is unreal.) This kid is a gas master just like his older brother. How do I get so lucky?

Considering all ofhte time I spend washing dishes, it's a good thing I have a little helper:

And now I can hear David squawking in the other room, so more pics later

David has been doing awesome so far. He love to sleep, eat and poop. Pretty easy right now, other than the fact that I have to wake him up every three hours to eat. His pediatrician just gave me to ok to change it to every four hours at night, so I can get just a little bit more sleep.





So far, Carden loves his baby brother. He loves to throw away all the dirty diapers, and say "EEWW!" and plug his nose when he does it. He loves to "pet" him and pat his back to help burp him. I'm actually surprised at how much easier it is with the two of them than I thought it would be. But now I've probably just jinxed myself, dang it!

Seriously, what a cutie!

Here he is in his "cage." We have to put the bassinett netting on the pack n play, because Carden loves to throw things right now and we're afraid he'll try and play catch with David...



First family picture. I think we're all a little tired at this point. (And white. We are all very white in this picture. Good thing summer is here).

And what a cheeseball!