Sam's Visitors

So this post is about a week old, but in our defense we have a new baby, so...yeah.

This will mostly just be a picture post, so here goes.

Here's Sam with his Grandpa and Grandma (or Gramps and Granny; we haven't decided for sure what we'll teach him to call them yet). But whatever we call them, Sam definitely enjoyed having them around, as did we. Sam is their first grandchild and we think they're naturals as grandparents. Sam is one lucky kid.

Hopefully Sam will get some of his Grandpa's (and his mom's) artistic talent. Emily decided Sam's room needed more stuff on the walls, so she got her dad to paint a picture of Sam-I-Am while he was here. As you can see it turned out really well. Emily also painted these wooden letters for the room, just in case we forget whose room it is.



My parents came to visit their latest grandchild also and my mom was able to stay for several days, so Emily had two full weeks of help before having to be on her own with Sam all day. We're very grateful to have such good parents. One of Grandma Stacey's favorite jobs is giving the new grandkids their sponge baths, and she is very good at it. We've been getting better at it, but taking a bath has been one of Sam's least favorite things to do ever since Grandma Stacey left.



Our friends the Bergers were some of Sam's first visitors in the hospital. Emily was Lucy and Lawren's nanny, so it was fun to see them with our first child. As you can see Lawren was fascinated by Sam. Lucy is obviously an experienced big sister.



Our friends the Handly's came by to visit Sam also. They will be getting a new baby brother in October, and they seem like they'll be ready. Both Aubrey and Morgan did a very good job holding Sam and keeping him happy. We didn't get a picture of their youngest, Sarah, with Sam, but she has been as fascinated with him as Lawren (they're both about a year and a half old). We sit behind the Handly's at church and throughout the meetings today Sarah kept turning around and pointing to Sam and saying "Baby!"



Sam couldn't decide which of his visitors he liked best. He had so much fun with all of them that we think he gets bored with just mom and dad sometimes.



We frequently catch Sam smiling when he's asleep. I wonder what babies dream about.


A lot of people have said that Sam looks a lot like Emily. I kind of agree, but he definitely has some Burkinshaw in him too.

R-R-R!

One Week Old

So Emily has been pretty busy with being a mom, and I'm finding that being a dad for a newborn doesn't require too much work yet (which is why I am writing the blog again). I change his diapers, but he's only had three messy diapers so far, so that's not too hard; I gave him his first washcloth bath this morning which took all of five minutes (there's not that much of him to wash, and his screaming encouraged me to hurry); and I hold him when he's sleeping just so I can feel like I'm contributing to his care, because it seems like whenever he's awake Emily is feeding him.

So I take pictures. Here's a few from Sam's first week of life.

He likes being swaddled and he loves his pacifier.

I remember loving it when my dad pulled out his guitar and sang us songs before bed. So I pulled my guitar out and started playing, and this is the reaction I got.

Here's a few of him trying to wake up.

I guess there's a reason they call it sleeping "like a baby".

And then there were three...

Here's the story of our exciting weekend...

On Thursday night (July 16th) Emily and I decided to go see the new Harry Potter movie since we figured it could be a while before we had a chance to see a movie in the theater again. The movie was okay. Emily had been having some very small Braxton-Hicks type contractions for the past week or two, but during the movie she started to have some that were a little stronger. Not sure what to do about it, we went home and went to bed. Actually, I went to bed and Emily stayed up as the contractions got a little more regular. About 3:00am (July 17, 2009) I woke up and we started timing them. I still wasn't convinced it was anything to get excited about, but Emily decided it would be better to err on the side of caution.

When we got to the hospital they took us in to their observation room and hooked Emily up to to some machines to measure her contractions and the baby's heart rate. She was dilated about 1cm, so they told us they'd be back in an hour to check her again. She continued to have fairly regular contractions, and an hour later she was 2cm. I guess that's still not much, but after another hour she was almost 3cm and they decided that this would be the day.

Emily hooked up to the monitors

The room was pretty nice

Emily read this book about the Bradley method of husband coached child birth and had thought she wanted to try going without an epidural, relying only on the comfort of my presence to get her through the pains of labor. Not surprisingly, after about five hours of contractions that were getting steadily stronger she decided that as stimulating as my company was it was no substitute for that of a CRNA (a nurse anesthetist). The epidural went in and the next couple of hours went by pretty quietly.

Emily hooked up to even more machines

About 1:00pm she was fully dilated and started pushing, and at 1:18pm the Dr. Gilliland welcomed Samuel Roberts Burkinshaw into the world with a suction bulb in the nose. Seemed a little harsh to me, but it was nothing compared to what the nurses did to him after that.

Sam weighed in at 6 lbs 1 oz and was 18 inches long. Not bad for 11 days early!

The proud parents

I've been asking Emily for a couple of weeks now if she was ever going to have this baby, but it seemed to all happen so fast and caught us both a little off gaurd. But we're quickly getting used to it and are very excited to have Sam with us.

Emily's parents, Gerry and Candy, arrived later that day and have enjoyed having some time with their first grandchild. Emily and I have enjoyed having someone around to do the cooking and cleaning.

Sam loves his grandparents

New babies sleep alot...

We heard that to prevent jaundice you should put babies in the sun, so this is Sam sunbathing in front of our storm door.

We've had fun debating which one of us Sam looks like most. Here's some pictures of all of us as babies. We'd be curious to hear any of your opinions.

That's about all the blogging I can handle for now. I'm sure Emily will want to tell her side of the story and share futher updates so check back soon.

Here's Sam signing off.

BAM!

Meet The Garage

Since we have already told everyone within the sound of our voice that we have redone our garage, we thought we would send it out to all others who may not have heard this exciting news. When we bought our house we decided to paint every room and since finishing that we have had little to do. We had talked about cleaning up our garage for some time and finally one evening John just started to pull things off shelves and toss them. We had inherited several old paint cans and they had mixed with some of our newer paint cans. As we were weeding out the useless paint we discovered that we had 2 whole gallons of paint that we ended up not using in our house. Along with a mixture of several other paint samples my dad had mixed together we made the perfect garage paint. With this discovery we set out to redo everything. We took down the numerous shelves and dust collecting shelving units. We got rid of everything we did not need, and we cleared the walls of debris.

We then primed the walls. This was in itself a huge improvement because it had only been textured and it made the garage look dustier than it really was.

But the real improvement came when we put on the paint. It was beautiful. We didn't get a before picture, but we did get some during and after pictures. Once we finished painting, putting up usuable shelves and organizing what was left, John decided that a work bench would put just the right finish on our garage. So we bought the materials and John built it all himself! Cutting all the boards with a handsaw and everything! So now we have a nice work bench with a peg board, and John is so proud of his garage.

If you happen to come by, ask to take a look because he likes to show it off. Those who did not see it before, could not fully appreciate the beauty that it now is, but even without knowing the before, it is hard not to admit that it is quite nice now.

Baby shower!

Created by Jane with love! :-)

Last weekend John and I were in Oklahoma for Jenny's graduation and to see Paul and Molly and the twins and to have a baby shower! It was absolutely a great time! I can't believe I didn't get any pictures with Olivia and Aislee, or Molly :-( while I was there. It'll probably be a while before we see them again. Arizona is a long ways away! But here are some pictures of the baby shower. So many wonderful people helped! And Karen Sparks took lots of pictures, thank goodness!

We had probably the best taco salads for lunch at the shower! Thank you Mom Burkinshaw, sister Jessica, Aunt Julie and Beth Knudsen!

Aunt Sandy made this adorable cake! Thank you!!

Mom Burkinshaw made yummy oreo balls

Amy designed the table decorations!

And cousin Jessica made baklava, truffles and mini maranges! What a wonderful family I have! Thank you all so much!!!


This was the blanket my Grandma Ker crocheted for me! It's yellow, my favorite color. My grandparents also picked out the little toy! It will be nice to have something for Sam to know his great grandma by, and grandpa better be around for a lot longer! :-)

These were some baby booties my sister Danielle made a long time ago at girls camp. My mom was just pulling out all the criers that day, and all the cousins and aunts were teary! They will hold a special place in my heart!

Meet Diana

So a lot has happened since our last post! I've been so busy and then lazy that I haven't recorded anything that's happened. Well here it is.

Over a month ago a received an email from facebook saying that someone found my birth mother, and then gave me all her info and how to get a hold of her. I was obviously skeptical at first, but then found that this woman was really who she said she was. Her name is Diana. She is a wonderful woman, and guess what?! She lives in TX! About an hour and a half away from us. So my mom decided that she would fly in to meet her with me and it was wonderful. We spent close to 12 hours talking and sharing stories, pictures, music (Diana sings and has a CD out! I can get you the site to order it if you're interested). It was really a great day, and happened to be the Friday before Mother's Day. What a perfect time! Oh! And Diana is tall! We have tall genes in the family! There is hope for our children to be taller than us! Anyway, pictures speak louder than words. So here are a few.

Diana and me- I told you she was tall. She has done some modeling too! Isn't that awesome?!


The three of us on that Friday- May 8th

So yesterday I got the opportunity to meet Diana's other children- Josh, Jessica and Vincent. It's a little crazy to think I have 3 half blood siblings! They came up after church and we ate dinner, and talked and it was really great getting to know them. What great kids! Josh is going to college and playing football! We'll have to keep an eye on him this year. And Jessica is graduating on Friday from High School. I'm positive she's going to be the next American Idol. She has a great voice too! And Vincent is a highly energized 3rd grader who will make the best of his summer vacation I am sure! It was great to meet them! And here we are!

So the pictures aren't great of me, but everyone else looks good! :-)

This is a photo of me Diana had of when I was first born on a blanket she made. My mom had just given me that blanket before all of this. It was how I knew for sure she was the real deal! This is us holding the blanket. Did I mention she was tall? :-)

When she was here the first time we saw a photo of her that I felt look so much like me! I thought I would share that too.

I haven't been able to find a comparable photo of me, but when I do, I'll post it! It was just a me look!