It's a Girl!

We are pleased to announce the arrival of our little belly bean that has been in my wife's term torturing her for the past 3 weeks. My wife started active labor around 2pm yesterday and ended with our little one coming at 10:52pm EST. She weighed in at 8lbs and 20in long. She fits the bill with our other two bundles who were 8lbs(my daughter) and 7lbs 15oz(my son). So it seems we have kind of a pattern here. She is absolutely gorgeous and we could not be happier.

My wife got to do her natural labor at the birth center just like she wanted. We had a water birth which turned out like we couldn't have imagined. Mother and baby are doing great and we are all home relaxing and just enjoying our new blessing from God.

She has also displayed to us that she is already to go to church. We can't decided if she is thanking God for getting her or telling him to put her back.

Update

Well I haven't wrote an update in a good little while so I figured I would. First I want to start off by saying thank you to all who shared there thoughts with me and my children. We have listed our family rules on the living room wall and explained it to both my two your old son and my 3 1/2 year old daughter. They both seem to understand what is going on and now when they don't follow through with the rules they know they have to go sit on the "naughty seat." This allows them to cool off and realize that they have done something that mommy and daddy do not approve of. It seems to be working as they are much better behaved and even started listening to mommy some. I know it is a work in progress and we will just have to stick with it. I have to keep reminding my wife to stick with as she tends to over react at the moment with her being 40 weeks pregnant. She knows what she is doing as well so I just hope it will get better once we have this baby.

Speaking of my wife and baby she seems to be in the beginning stages of labor. She isn't in full blown active labor but she is having contractions every 5 to 8 minutes or so. The midwife at the birth center my wife plans to go to said that we need to come in when they are 3 to 5 mins apart and she cannot walk or talk through them. At some points I wonder if she is already there but she tells me know so we wait. Luckily my work is letting me work from home today so that I can keep an eye on here and the kids. I ask you all keep us in your prayers and thoughts as we hopefully have this baby soon.

Random Thoughts!

So the big idea didn't pan out to well. I was sore for days after my big ride and decided to train up some before I start making my big ride a permanent thing. I am trying to ride every night around 8 til 9 to work myself up. This also gives me a time to reflect on the day and how things have been going. It is nice to have this time and see things from a different perspective. I know my wife wishes she could have times like this but with her being 30 weeks pregnant that doesn't seem to happen often.

My children have also started this whole not going to listen thing with her and I am not sure how to approach it. We have found this chart setup that when they listen to something mommy says then the get to move their person along the path. If they don't listen then they have to move them back a space. They try to reach certain check points on the trail and ultimately the end. We are thinking of starting off with 10 tries to get to the top with the big reward at the end of the day. If they only make it say 5 spots then they can have a small treat but anything under that they get nothing. So we are going to see how that goes and hopefully they won't walk all over mommy because she can't handle much more with the two of them and with the baby almost here. For her sake I hope it works.

My wife and I also go to talking tonight that maybe we expect to much out of our children and it got me wondering. What should we expect from a 3 1/2yr old and a 2yr old? I would like some feedback if anyone has anything they can share. I know we are still learning all of this and we are fairly young so at times we could expect to much and not know it. They say please and thank you but don't seem to respect their mother at times. When I tell them something they usually do it but not all the time. With their mother they do it like 10% of the time and the other 90% they spend pushing her buttons till she explodes. Is this just a phase they go through or did we go wrong somewhere? I guess only time will tell how we did and if anyone out there has any comments then please share them cause we are all ears.

Thanks,
JR

The Big Idea!

So the time has come for me to really get into shape. I have been thinking about it for awhile and I just want to dive head first right in. I figured I could get in shape and save on my gas bill since the price doesn't seem to be dropping anytime soon. So I went out and bought a bike and rode to work for the first time today. The trek is 15 miles one way so it ends up being 30 miles of riding a day. I am on day 1 with the first leg over.

So now that I am at work and have time to think about what I have just done and how I am going to get home makes me wonder. My butt really hurts from the seat and my legs still feel like jell-o. I will try to suck it up and right my way home and see how day two will start out for me.

I just ask that you pray for me and hope that God will give me the strength to power on despite how much pain I am in right now. I know that it will only get better with time and I just need to keep it going. I will keep you all up to date on my great biking to work adventure.

Vacation!

So we made it to to California for a vacation of sorts. I am happy that we made it here in one piece but the experience was fun to say the least. My wife wrote a good article about it on her blog Busy Bee Mama. So go check that out and see what fun we had. I will write soon after I get home on the 15th.

Something Greater!

Have you ever just sat around and just wondered how everything has happened. I mean this world we live in is so diverse and everyone has some theory about how we got here. I just wonder about the people who don't believe and what runs through their minds to make them not think that there is a God that created this. That we are here for a purpose and not just some random beings wondering around.

One of the ways I remind myself that we are part of something greater is every time I walk into my kids room when they are sleeping and see how wonderful a miracle they are and knowing that God has giving me this wonderful blessing. I like any other parent would die for my children and do whatever it takes to raise them right. I just hope I can do it right the first time so that they don't have to go through the things I did.

May God bless you all with love and happiness,
Johnny

How cute they can be.

No matter how frustrated I become there are always points in my day or night when I can look at my kids and my frustration goes away. I will take last night for example. My daughter threw the biggest fit before bedtime to where I just wanted to walk out. I didn't want to deal with her anymore and I left my wife to calm her down and talk with her. Later that night we went in to close their window and my wife called me in to look at them. When I went into the room they looked so peaceful sleeping there. They were sort of laying on each other and snuggled up. I can only thank God for those precisou moments. I know they will grow up and understand more and more each day but at time I am so frustrated that I am not sure what to do. I am learning to just back off and pray so that I can calm down and take a better approach to the situation.

It is amazing how just simple step back and prayer can work in any situation. It doesn't matter who or what you are dealing with and if you feel like you are getting to heated maybe you should just step back and pray.

Does anyone else find themselves frustated with what they're kids do or don't do? I hope I am not all alone on that front.

Mothers are Great!

Mothers day has come and gone but this year was really good. My kids are actually old enough to help prepare Mommy breakfast in bed. So I prepared the pancakes with my little helpers mixing up the batter. Once that was complete I poured her some Orange Juice to which my 20 month old son carried and my daughter carried the pancakes. I of course carried the present and the cards. She had been talking about wanting a baking stone so I finally found one that had a 10 year warranty. She loved the gift and moved her food to the table so she could eat with the family.

Later in the day we were out at Wal-Mart getting a few things and ran into this couple who absolutely fell in love with my daughter. She thought she was the cutest thing. We came to find out that she had 3 boys and was expecting another child. She doesn't know what it is yet but they are hoping for a girl. She also let us know that they owned a Pizza place right down the road and it was called Pies on Pizza. So we went there for lunch today to find out just how good it was. The couple was there and remembered us which was nice. They also switched the TV to cartoons for the kids to enjoy. The pizza came out and it was probably the best pizza I have ever eaten in my life. We will definitely go back there again. You just can't be great service and great tasting pizza.

It really happened!

The time has finally come. I have the piece of paper in my hand. How long have I worked for this paper that says congratulations you have graduate and now have a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology Management. This is such a great feeling and a great weight off my shoulders. I started back in 2001 by going to Oklahoma State University for a year and then joining the Air Force and putting it off until 2004 when I started TUI University Online. As of March 2008 I am a graduate of TUI and the first one in my family to do so. My mom always told me that I would probably be the first one in the family to get it and that kind of added pressure but I also had a lot of people telling that I would fail just like the rest of my family. I think that pushed me even more.

Then in High school I was voted most likely to succeed. That was even more pressure so I had my work cut out for me. I worked harder and with my loving wife by my side the whole way telling I could do this and that she was there to help meant the world to me. I don't think I would have finished without her. She has been as much of a rock for me as she says I have been for her. I love her dearly and I thank God for unanswered prayers. Because if he did answer them I would have been with a different women and who knows what would have happened.

So now the on to the next challenge in life which is raising my kids right and furthering my education by passing my Certified Information Systems Security Professional or CISSP exam in June. I could use all the prayers that you guys have to offer, so please send them my way.

Fun in the Sun!

So we decided to get a small plastic pool for our kids to enjoy for the summer. They are 2 and 3 years old so we figured they would love it. They already had a slide swing set combo and putting the pool at the end of the slide just made sense. Then daddy would hold the water at the top of the slide to make a water slide. My daughter fell in love with this idea and it has been great watching her.

Now I had to convince my son to try it out and that he did. I was so proud of him for what he did because I didn't think he would do it but the look on his face afterwards was priceless. My son is a true warrior.

Now that they both had a turn and daddy was already wet from them splashing me I decided to give it a try. We had the water setup on a sprinkler under the swings so they could still get wet as they swung but it was also creating a stream on the slide. This was my opportunity to give this a try. Why should the kids have all the fun?

Now that was some fun!

Some times I wonder.

I wonder about my family sometimes and where I went wrong. I wonder how long my wife will hold on to her sanity after taking care of our two children. They seem to find a new button to push every day with her and just drive her up the wall. Where did we go wrong that our 3 year old daughter takes off her cloths and then pees on her brothers bed? I know she doesn't watch this kind of TV or anything so where does she get these crazy ideas? She then proceeds to helping her almost 2 year old brother take off his onesie, which we put on him to keep his diaper on, so that he can take his diaper off and join her in peeing around their bedroom. The added bonus if he ends up poopy and then she has to deal with that.

Now I am home during the morning to help her relax because of the current pregnancy and some minor complications with it. So we put them down for afternoon naps so that I can go into work for 4 or so hours and they end up pushing my wife to the breaking point. So the question always rolls through my mind in what did we do wrong or what are we missing that she is trying to reach out and get attention for something, anything at all. I guess time will tell how we end up doing in raising our children and hopefully the new baby will not be able to pick up on the bad habits of its older siblings. I guess I can only pray and hope God can guide me in the right direction. I do not want to make the situation worse but something needs to be done. I just don't know what that is yet.

Far to long!

It has been far to long since I last posted and so much has happened in almost a year. My family is about to grow by another one coming in September. We are so excited with the coming of this baby so much that we are not going to find out what the gender is because we already have one of each. I love my daughter to death and she keeps amazing me everyday with the amount of stuff she is learning. My son who is about to turn two years old is amazing me as well with his verbal skills. He has started saying sentences and picking new ones up everyday.

For Christmas they got a swing set from there YaYa! and man were they excited. Almost everyday I come home from work they ask if they can go outside to play on it. When you take them out you can just see how their little faces just light up and it makes them so happy that I can't help but smile no matter how hard of a day I had at work.

So up to the present day I have finished my degree in Information Technology Management and I am actively studying to take my Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certification. This will help up my salary and also make me more marketable in my current field. So for now I study for that and kind of relax and play with my kids as it seems I am not stressing as much about school but still have to worry about my wife and the new baby as they are having some minor problems.

That is all for now and I will try to post more often than I have been.