Finally, more pictures

Hey folks,

Well it seems that last time when I was blogging in the hospital I stated I'd "get more details and pictures" on here soon. I know, "liar liar pants on fire" right? -- Well being a full time parent, and a full time student made the first 3 weeks of little Brooklyn's life a total blur for me. So as you can see I didn't have time to post like I committed myself to. But you parents out there probably knew that was going to happen didn't ya?

Nevertheless I am happy to post a few pictures, hopefully that old saying a picture's worth a thousand words will count for this short post. Enjoy, and have a Merry Christmas!

 

Big Yawn Brooklyn :)

Baby's First Thanksgiving!

 

She's a very happy baby

and as you can tell by the photos this little girl looks a little different every day! We love her very much and are having lots of fun :) Have a merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Brooklyn Jayne

Introducing Brooklyn Jayne Sanders! She was born at 5:01 am Wednesday, November 16th.
She was 20.5 inches long, weighed 7 pounds 15 ounces, and is absolutely beautiful!
She's got long legs and fingernails, with some pretty brown hair and blue eyes (which we've been told could both change color). Mother and daughter are both doing well, but we thought we would post some pictures for friends and family to see. (birth story to follow soon)

This picture of Staci was taken 40 weeks, 6 days, about 30 minutes before she admitted to the hospital

 This is the labor and delivery room where little Brooklyn was born. The room felt huge when we first got there but just the right size for the 10 or so people moving in around

I loved this picture on the side of Staci's bed. The bed she has in the recovery room just had the regular stick figure.

And here she is, little Brooklyn Jayne

 

photos from my camera aren't playing nice with blogger so yall will have to wait a little longer sorry!

Fun Facts

Sorry everyone, no news yet. BUT, here's a few fun facts about the next few days...

If our daughter is born on:

Oct. 31st  -----  She'll be a Halloween baby, and possibly the 7 Billionth person on the planet
Nov. 1st    ----    She'll be born on 11/1/11   (which is Staci's guess)
Nov. 3rd   ----   She'll be born on 11/3/11 , then she'll come home with us (to apt. # 11311)
Nov. 7th   ----   She'll be born on our 3rd anniversary! (wow)
Nov. 9th   ----   She'll be born on her DUE DATE (does that ever happen?)
Nov. 11th ----   She'll be born on 11/11/11
Any time after that  ---- She'll be huge. haha

Well there you go. Probably not that exciting, but I thought I'd give the sign-seekers something to chew on till the little one shows up! If you can think of any other fun facts about the next few days, shout out in the comments below. Regardless of when she comes however, it will be her birthday, and for that reason alone it will be important.

I'll need a new blog title soon...

Hey folks. So I don't know when the countdown begins, especially because counting down always makes big events take longer to get here. Not to mention the countless people who have interjected that the first baby is 'always late', then they trail off with "except this one time... and my sister's... and my neighbor's... and my..." blah blah blah.

I'm not saying she definitely won't be late, but I do know it's not an exact science predicting when she's due. Considering unpredictable periods, surprising ultrasound statistics and other what-not, I'll just say I'm going to be happy to see my daughter when she gets here.

(my daughter... whoa!)

She's due November 9th so sometime between now and Thanksgiving expect the news :P
Anyway Staci had her baby shower this past Thursday, and received a wonderful assortment of gifts. Thank you all for thinking of us as we truly appreciate your love and support.

As we prepare for 'labor day' it was very relieving to see us get so much of what we need. I was surprised to see that we were given some really great "extras" (the awesome, but non-essential baby items), but we still need to get some basics like wipes, bottles, and a pad for our changing table. There are a few gadgets and baby supplies I'm pretty excited about but I won't spoil it in case Staci wanted to blog the details.

We did get a few duplicate items we might swap for those essentials (I'm guessing we don't need 3 of the exact same toy) but all in all we're just excited. I know Staci is in need of some well deserved time off of work, but yes she and I will be working harder than ever I'm sure.

Quick Post

Hey Everyone,

So occasionally I open up my blog list, realize I haven't said anything in awhile, then resolve to do it later but still read up on what everyone else is doing. Well here's what we're doing in a super short post!

Staci and I are super excited for our little girl to join the family due Nov. 9th, (although Staci and I are thinking she may come a little early. we've heard it all, so I guess we'll just wait and see). In the meantime we're getting the nursery all ready, and trying to distract ourselves with work and school.

Staci is still working full time at the chiropractic office, and has showed little signs of slowing down even though the little bump is now a basketball sized bump! The o.b. is so surprised every visit we have nothing bad to report, it's like he's waiting to hear the worst. It's not the stock market! (ba-doom-tsch)

I'm still chugging along through school, with 5 difficult classes all vying for my attention. (Trigonometry, Gen. Chemistry I, Gen Chem Lab, US History II, and an Intro to Engineering course -- for those of you curious). I think I bit off more than I can chew this time around because when the baby comes in a few weeks, I'll be sleep deprived just in time for finals! I wouldn't want to wait any longer though, I can't wait to meet this kid!

It's a GIRL!

Well folks Staci and I are about to be the proud parents of a baby girl due November 9th. We are very excited for her, and are very happy to hear from the doctor that mother and daughter are both very healthy :)

Now that we finally know, (finally!), we're making preparations for baby girl Sanders to come. For the next 7 days our focus is mainly on packing and moving to another apartment on July 7th, 8th &
9th.

We're thankful to have the 4th to celebrate the birth of our nation as well! Have a happy and safe 4th of July!

It's Been Too Long

Yikes! It's been 5 months or so since my last post. I believe there comes a time when so much has changed there's really no way to bring everyone up to speed, but I'll try.

Most importantly, we're going to have a baby! You can get all the vivid details on Staci's blog.
We ought to find out the gender tomorrow but if this appointment goes anything like the last one, we might have to wait. I'm very excited for little baby Sanders to get here, but as the father, I feel there's little more I can do to prepare at this time (until later in the pregnancy of course). We've already got an awesome crib, changing table, rocking chair, and a bunch of other stuff. We're also gearing up for a move to another apartment in two weeks to get away from our noisy neighbors. It's always been hard to embrace change, but I know it'll be good for us.

Seeing as Staci has covered the pregnancy pretty well on her blog, I'll try to supplement everything else that has happened to us since early January. I successfully quit my job at Chase and transitioned to being a full-time college student again. A tremendous weight lifted off my shoulders and I'm extremely grateful for that. School however, is a whole new challenge but one I'd much rather have. My first full-time semester in college went better than expected. I pulled off two A's, and two B's. I'm finding my early semesters were unbalanced though, realizing that I've completed my Social Sciences, Humanities, English and Communications courses, and other courses like that. I've avoided all Math and Science until now and found I've painted myself into a corner! I need several math and science courses now, with many of them pre-requisite for each other!

To make up for lost time I'm currently taking a College Algebra course in the summer and plan to fill every major break between semesters with additional classes. (It's a good thing I'm taking this course by itself too. We're currently learning how to graph a binomial expression divided by a trinomial (or polynomial) expression, using "Synthetic division" instead of long division.) -- I know, it doesn't make sense to me either. I'm really starting to ask myself if I really want to be an engineer. We'll see.

It has been wonderful to be home more often, especially to be there when Staci gets home (instead of the other way around). She has continued her office manager position at her brother's chiropractic/nutrition office, and is working hard every day, coming home very tired. (Understandably so, she's several months pregnant, still working full time!). We try to make the most of our time together, but it usually involves movies at home and falling asleep on the couch! :) She's inspiring to me, but I don't know what more I can do to support her beyond the cooking / cleaning / etc. I'm sure "that's what she really needs right now" but it would be nice to do more.

As some of you also know, I've started a business this past March to contribute to our little family. I've called it "Santec Services" which is a company to assist homes and small business with their technology. (btw the name is an abbreviation of "Sanders-Technology Services").

Here in Frisco, TX, there are plenty of people who have little time, or know-how, (or ambition) to set up their home theaters, network their computers, or fix their electronic devices (no matter how simple or complicated the fix). I thought "Hey, why not have me do it"? So far I've gotten Santec registered with the county, I've opened a business bank account, the accounting is all set up, and I even have a mobile credit card payment service through Square! Just recently I've also designed the logo, and have business cards on the way.

I'm currently working on a website (that is still under construction of course), trying to teach myself HTML. If anyone has some advice or help please let me know, as well as what taxes I might owe and other IRS information.

Staci has been very supportive of me with the business but I'm glad she's also here to keep me in check so I don't go nuts with the start up costs. I've had a few clients but really hope to get some traffic later this summer and into the fall (so long as my grades don't suffer as a result of course!)

We look forward to November when our little one arrives. In the mean time I'm just trying to stay busy! Other than that, life is good.  :)

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Hey y'all,

It seems like every month another year flies by. So much has happened since my last post I don't really know where to begin.

Well as much as we wanted to move from our apartment, we're staying here. We had prayed many many times to know what exactly we should do about the apartment and where we should live, as well as what options we had regarding work and my school. After much thought and discussion we felt the need for me to go back to school full-time and stay right here. That means no time for work. So I applied for student loans, extended the lease, and quit my job.

It was extremely difficult to give up a decent job in today's economy. I knew how many people stood in line to get their unemployment benefits from me every week.  I also knew many many people who have been unemployed, or underemployed for years. But I knew beyond all of that that until I get either relevant experience, or a degree, I won't be able to do much more than deliver pizza the rest of my life. And in the workforce very very few are willing to take a gamble on someone without a degree, to allow them to gain the experience.

So I'm headed back to School. Tomorrow! Because I wasn't able to get student loans finalized until a short while ago I could only get 12 credit hours this semester. But with this course load I should be able to pull off some pretty nice grades and be set up for summer semesters to keep rockin' straight through Christmas!

As strange as it sounds, I never thought I'd be so happy to be unemployed! (ha ha)

The bank was such a toxic environment for me, I'm glad to be out of it. I'm also EXTREMELY thankful I have the resources (and the very helpful support of a loving wife!) to help me through it!

From the moment we decided this was our course of action, within 2 weeks everything fell into place. Our apartment complex took our offer to extend the lease at the same rate, and the paperwork for student loans were submitted extremely fast, with the first check coming in the night before my last day of work. Heavenly Father has definitely blessed us, but it was truly a hard thing to do.

So for the time being, Staci will keep working full time, while I go to school. and unless something ch-ch-changes, we'll keep on that schedule for another (gulp)... 3 years.