Kenley's First Steps

Today: 12/27/2010

Kenley took her first steps to her daddy! It was so fun and Daddy got a little teary eyed!

Thoughtful Thursday

Please don't think that I'm a bad mother by not responding to my child's cry of, "I want you!" There are just days when you know that is manipulation. This has been happening all day and just thought I would share one of the reasons that us mothers seem to have lost our minds on many days. :)

This is actually a pretty rare occurrence around here, so I had to share!

29 Years Old!

My birthday was yesterday and it was a great day! I went to Ladies' Bible Class in the morning and then spent the afternoon with my girls. At 3:30pm I had a 90 minute massage! It was heavenly!! :)

Apparently, while I was gone, Jayden had been complaining that her tummy was hurting so the babysitter had given her some laxative. She had started complaining as soon as I left (3:15) and

when I got home she was still hurting. She would randomly cry out in pain. It was awful! I finally decided that when Travis got home, we were going to take her to the doctor. So, Travis got home and the babysitter came about the same time. (We had another babysitter come so that we could go out for my birthday dinner.) Travis and I loaded up Jayden in the car and started driving. About the time we pull into the parking lot at the hospital (doctor's office was closed) Jayden cries out one more time and lets out the biggest TOOT I have ever heard come out of her! And then...she was ALL better! That is right... I almost took my daughter to the ER for GAS!!!!! Ugh...

My birthday dinner still happened! We took Jayden home and went out. Travis took me out to my traditional birthday place...RED LOBSTER!! Woohoo!!! It was good to get out and spend time with my hubby. We had some time to go walk around at Bed, Bath & Beyond after dinner. I love spending time with Travis no matter what we are doing!

Kenley has the stomach bug that the rest of us had the last couple of weeks. :( Poor kid! We thought we got her out of the house in time to avoid it, but apparently her tummy is giving her issues!

God please give my babies a rest from the sicknesses going around!

Halloween and New Business

Hello World!

I know it has been a long time, but isn't that I have been starting all of my posts lately?! Okay...please leave a comment when you read this so that I know people are still out there reading my blog. Sometimes I feel like I'm writing and posting out into the internet world and no one is out there still reading. I don't blame those who have given up on me, but I need a little reassurance that my mother-in-law is not the only one who still wants to know what is going on!! I would still post just for you Mimi!! :)

Halloween was a blast! We only got a few pictures of the evening, but the only reason we have ANY pictures is our dear friend Tong! My camera went missing, along with the memory card holding all of my pictures for September and October. :( We have looked high and low, in all cars, at the homes of friends and family. No camera! I'm thinking it fell out of my car (not sure how that hunk of a camera could fall and me now hear or see it) or someone took it. It makes me sad, but I got a new camera today! Yay!

Okay...on to the important stuff...pictures of the girls last night!

Our sweet girls did so well! They really had a blast and went straight to sleep when we got home! It was great! :)

I guess the biggest news for our family recently is that I am now working! I am now an Independent Beauty Consultant with Mary Kay! I'm so excited about my new business and I am really having fun with it! I have some big goals, so if you are interested in helping me out, leave a comment, email me, call, text, or whatever!

My website is www.marykay.com/janakaymcham and my email is janakaymcham@marykay.com!

Stay tuned as I will try to post more often (I say that every time too) and I hope to post my goals and success for my business!

Life With Diabetes

As most of you know...I now have Diabetes! I had Gestational Diabetes with both of my pregnancies and now I am a type 2 diabetic. I have been insulin dependent because I was nursing Kenley.

About 3 weeks ago, I noticed that I was starting to get really fatigued again and so I started checking my blood sugar more regularly. I was back up in the 200's (the normal average fasting level for someone with diabetes is 130). Getting up in the 200's is NOT GOOD! I was so tired that I could not stay awake. It was almost like being in the first trimester of pregnancy...you just can't get enough sleep.

So, I went to the doctor yesterday. Apparently...birth control makes your blood sugar shoot up! Well...THAT would have been nice to know!!!! Grrr....

I just started birth control again since I stopped nursing Kenley. Yup...I started it 3 weeks ago. Exactly when my numbers went up. I am now taking a higher dosage of insulin, but he also put me on Metformin. Our goal is to get me off of insulin all together. Yay!!!

We will see what happens.

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Here is the video of Kenley crawling...

Since The Last Post

We have been BUSY!!!

After camp Travis built the first level of our new deck. Our friend Tong came over and helped too. It is nice to have it and much more appealing to look at than the concrete patio we had before. He did such a great job!

While they were building the deck, Kenley decided to start sitting up on her own. She is now crawling a bit and it is so fun to watch Jayden encourage her sister. (I will upload a video as soon as I can. This thing is giving me a hard time!)

In July we had Jayden's birthday. She turned 2! It is amazing how time flies. Our little girl is growing up so fast. She is testing at the 3.5 year old level on her developmental evaluations. She is too smart! We don't get away with much these days! :) For her birthday party we had a Backyardigans theme. Jayden had so much fun!

Yup...I made that! :)

To start our August, we have two of my nephews here with us! Wade and Lafe came to stay with us on Wednesday and they are staying until Monday. We are having SO MUCH FUN!!! Thursday we just laid around and had fun playing games. Yesterday we went to the Zoo and then swimming! Jayden was so excited about Wade and Lafe coming that she kept saying, "Take Wade to Zoo?!" She kept telling me to get my shoes on and go get Wade! It was precious. SO, of course we had to go to the zoo. I forgot my camera, so I don't have any pictures from there. Today (Saturday) we went and had lunch with Mimi and Pop and tonight, we are going to have Aunt Norma, Uncle Danny and Grandma Mary over for dinner! It is going to be a good time!

That is it for now. We will keep you posted on the exciting times here at the McHam's! :)

Here are some pictures I took of the girls to hold you over! ;)

I Wish Babies Could Talk & Tell Us What Is Wrong With Them!

My husband, all my sisters, my mom and many others are at camp tonight and I am at home. :(

Kenley woke up from a nap on Saturday and her left check was really swollen. We took her to the ER and they gave her some antibiotics for Parotitis. That is an infection is the Parotid gland just in front of the ear. She reacting very well to the medicine. The swelling has gone down, but of course we have to continue the antibiotics for 8 more days!

I took her in to the doctor today and they drew some blood and took a culture for testing. The blood work shows that her white blood cells are normal, but there is a presence of the cells that fight off viruses. We are waiting for the culture results to come back to let us know if I can go to camp at all. That could take a few days. The earliest I would get to go is Thursday and camp ends on Saturday. I'm not sure I want to drive up just to turn around a day and a half later. Ugh! Great timing, right!?

Oh well...we will see what happens...

Jayden is in Little Rock with her Mimi and Pop for the week. She went with them so that we wouldn't have to take her to camp. I'm sure she is having a blast, but I miss her!!! I was supposed to have camp to distract me, but now I'm just sitting at home with Kenley missing my other baby! Here is a picture and video...

Saturday Mornings with Dad!

**UPDATE**

**I have added something I forgot in the original post. Go down to May!**

It has been 2 months since I posted last. Sorry for the absence, but life has been pretty crazy. I'll try and remember the big things that have happened! :)

In March:

1) I took the girls on a trip to see all of my sisters. It was a blast! We went to LJ's first and had a great visit. Then we went to DL's and Jayden got sick. :( We ended up staying in most of the time, but it was a good visit. Next we went to Mom's and visited with JB. We went to the Dallas Zoo and met my cousin Jill and her son Nicholas there. It was really good to see them! Finally we went to KA's. That was a lot of fun. I miss getting to see my sisters all the time. I decided that I was going to make an effort to go visit each of my sisters each year. I also decided to go see Mom and Dad more often. I just get so caught up in my family's schedule that I don't think about the fact that I can go see them during the week. I don't have to wait for a weekend that Travis can go.

2) Travis and I had our 3 year anniversary! It is hard to believe that we have only been married for 3 years and have 2 girls. I am so glad I married my best friend! We are so happy and can't wait to see what God has in store for us.

3) We had our family pictures taken! Our friend Tong has really gotten into photography and we were so willing to let him use our family to get started! :)

In April:

1) We went to Little Rock to visit Travis' brother Mark and his family for Easter. It was so much fun! We colored Easter eggs and had a hunt in the back yard. It was great! We also went hiking. Jayden had a blast!! She did awesome and wanted to climb the mountain all by herself. :)

2) Jayden has learned Ephesians 6:1! She has actually gotten to the point where she can say it all by herself since we took this video.

In May:

1) I took the girls up to see Mom again. It was a great visit! We went up to see her parents in Wayne, OK. It was so good to see them!! Kenley decided she wanted a taste of Oma's coffee! :) She kept pulling Mom's cup toward her and chewing on the edge of the cup. She is getting so big.

2) Mark and Jenny came in for a weekend in May also. Jayden had a blast spending the night over at Mimi and Pop's with her cousins Tristan and Pierce. She often wakes up in the morning or from her naps (sometimes both) asking for them! I keep telling them that they need to move in next door. Literally...the house next door is for sale! :)

3) Jenny has started her new photography business too! (sorry I forgot sis!) Here are some awesome shots she got of Kenley!

Now that we are in June, a couple of things are going on! First, we have camp next week! Yay! We are getting so excited. :)

Also, Travis and I have started a workout routine. We have doing it for a week and so far...it is going great! I lost 3 lbs last week! Woohoo! I am really trying to get these last 30 pounds off. I want to do everything I can to get off of insulin! My numbers have been so high and I'm nursing, so I can't take the oral medication (not that I want to take it anyway...I have not heard one good thing about any of the oral medications for diabetes). So, my goal is to get everything under control and not have to take anything! We will see...

As a final note...please pray for Kingwood Church of Christ. We have had a lot of blows lately. Satan is really at work and while we are able to show what this church is made of...it is very trying. I am so proud of our church and the way that everyone has handled the last couple of weeks. Life has been delivering blow after blow, but I am looking up!

God is my refuge and my strength! I can do anything through Him!

Family Pictures!

Our friend Tong Utakrit is starting his photography business and he offered to take our family pictures if we allowed him to use our pictures for his portfolio. So...of course we did it! Plus, he is an AWESOME photographer and we would love any chance to capture precious moments with our little ones. We got some great shots that I will post later. However, we need a caption for one of our favorite shots. Leave your suggestions in the comments and I will pick a winner on Tuesday!

Play Time!

I took Jayden to Kids In Action today. It was so much fun! This is a place where kids develop skills and do gymnastics. They use a Kindermusic curriculum that is so creative! They have free play every once in awhile and that is why we went today. We met some friends there and Jayden had such a blast! She was fearless and wanted to try EVERYTHING!

Then it was music play time! She played with bubbles, balloon balls and with friends!

And then Daddy got home!

Kenley has gotten so big! She is almost 3 months and it is amazing how fast the little babies grow! She is smiling and squealing all the time!

Kenley is 2 Months Old!

Kenley is 2 months old now! Time is flying! We have adjusted pretty well around here. I definitely have days where I am completely worn out by the end, but they are all fun! What a blessing to have 2 precious little girls! Plus, I know I'm the favorite daughter now since I have ONLY girls...(right Dadda??) :) J/K Sisters!

Kenley's 2 month stats are:

Height: 22 1/4 inches (47%)
Weight: 11lb 7oz (68%)
Head: 36.5cm (5%)

So we have a chunky, long baby with a tiny head! :) But she is gorgeous!

All three of us girls went to the park yesterday and had a ball! Jayden went down all the slides by herself. The only thing I helped her do was climb up the first step. She had it all under control from that point. I was so proud of her! She is growing up so fast.

Please Help!!

Hello friends and family!!

Our friend Tracy Robinson is an INCREDIBLE photographer and she has taken pictures of our kids loads of times. She's just gone full time and is having a photo contest and some giveaways for best picture of 2009. Please, please, please go and vote! I have to warn you - There is some tough competition! But you gotta vote for JAYDEN (25) and if you know my awesome sister in law, her youngest boy PIERCE (#11) . You just go to http://doe-ee-bird.blogspot.com// and leave a comment on the blog OR you can email Tracy at tracy@doe-ee-bird.com.

Let me know when you go vote! :)

And We Are Back!

Sorry it has been awhile. Our internet has acting up and it was on a very rare occasion that I could actually connect at all, and then it would drop within 5 minutes! Very frustrating...but I think we have it fixed now! :)

Things have changed around here a bit. Making the jump from one kid to two really wasn't that hard. Granted, the fact that Jayden has NO jealousy issues whatsoever and Kenley is her sister's own personal baby doll, has made it pretty painless. Jayden absolutely LOVES her baby sister. I hope they become the best of friends as they grown up! :) There is nothing like the bond of sisters.

Kenley is getting big. I haven't weighed her recently, but would guess that she is at least pushing the 12 lb marker. She is still sleeping and eating very well. We go back for her 2 month check up next Tuesday, February 9th. I believe they are planning to do an ultrasound to check out her one kidney, but I'm not sure. I'll give you an update after the appointment. I decided to use her musical sea horse as her visual growth guide! :)

during her 1st month

2 months

I went for my 6 week check up a week and a half ago. I took my 2 hour glucose test to see if my gestational diabetes went away. I FAILED the test!! :( So, technically, I'm a diabetic. I didn't test too high, so diet and exercise has helped to regulate my blood sugar levels over the past week. I went to see my PCP (primary care physician) today. He said that since I am nursing, there is none of the medications for diabetes that I can take, other than insulin, but my numbers are not high enough to treat with insulin. Also, he thinks that when I lose the last few pregnancy pounds the results of the test could be different. So, for the next 6 weeks, I am to exercise at least 3 times a week and stay on a diabetic diet. The hope is to have lost the last few pounds that I have hanging on by then. He is going to then test me again for diabetes and test my liver, kidney and thyroid. I see him again on March 22nd for the results of those tests. Please be praying that I am able to lose the weight and stick to the diet like I should. I am very thankful that I am not going to be dependent on insulin!

Here are some pictures of the girls to send you off...