Newer pictures of Van

So here are some pictures we took of Van this past weekend. The one below on the white blanket I refer to as the Calvin & Hobbes picture. His expression is just like one that Calvin makes in several of the cartoons.
The pictures on top show how much hair he has. He is almost ready for a haircut it seems. He had his 2 week appointment yesterday and they said everything is good. His weight is a little under par but he is eating well still so it shouldn't be a problem. He is still so tiny it is hard to believe babies are so little when they are born. It is easy to forget when you have a couple of boys who grow like weeds.

Please take a minute and post a comment on here so I know who is visiting our blog. I have a counter to see how frequently it is visited, but I would like to know who sees it. Thanks.

Life as an Engineer

We have been pretty busy at work and hardly have been on site. We are supposed to get back out to Buckley AFB next week to resume rotomilling the mainline of the other taxiway and also will be paving the other taxiway. Our job out in Broomfield in controlled chaos. We have had a lot of extra work out there which is always good because we can charge out time and materials. There are so many subcontractors on that job that our new concrete gets damaged often. It would be wise if they had us hold off until the end to replace it, but they don't. Some spots have been removed and replaced 4 times. It is money for us but would be easier if they just left it until the subcontractor traffic died down some.

My office is in Aurora, about 7 miles from DIA. We have an Asphalt plant here along with our small office building. I share an office with Joe, who is one of our field Superintendents. He isn't in the office much. Darren is the guy in the picture. He is also from Idaho. He is training me and shows me what to do. He is always getting calls and people asking him questions. He starts 5 things a day and is lucky to get one thing done b/c he is helping so many other people. We spent most of the morning executing extra work sheets and making sure we are getting paid for all of our work above and beyond the original contract.

Van's Weekend

What a fun Memorial Day weekend we had. My parents flew in late Thursday night and Janna's parents and sister flew in Friday evening. Thursday while I was at work they went to the park and had a fun day with "Grandma and Grandpa Scott." That is their name for them. Saturday we took the train downtown and walked around the 16th Street Marketplace and saw Coors Field. We ate lunch at ESPNZone and I have to say their Philly Cheesesteak is EXCELLENT. More meat & cheese and fewer peppers. After naps that afternoon we hit Fat City for some bowling. Our computer scoring was messed up a few different times so they gave us an extra half hour. I have to say those bumpers don't help my curve when I bowl. Rusty and Stone are fun to watch because after they roll their ball they just sit down right where they are and watch it.

Sunday was really nice. We blessed Van at church and some of our friends were also able to come be with us. Marshall, Bre, Gavin, and Eva Stanclift came up from Castle Rock and Caleb and Tammy Zimmerman and their boys came down from Longmont. Unfortunately the Zimmerman's and my parents both had to leave right after. The rest of us had a nice lunch afterwards. Monday we spent most of the day at 6 Flags/Elitch Gardens. That was a lot of fun and the weather was great. The only thing that would have made the day better would have been a nice barbeque at the end. Unfortunately we have not bought a new one yet. It looks like I will have to get one for my birthday next month.

Rusty's Growing

Little Van is doing great. He sleeps in his crib next our bed at night and even though I'm not the one waking up with him, Janna said he has been going about 4 hours between feedings. I am a pretty deep sleeper and don't hear him when he wakes up since he does not cry. His cord fell off yesterday and it made him a little fussy before bedtime, but I would probably be the same way. I still haven't had a chance to bring the camera to work to upload recent photos. We don't have the net at home so we either have to go to the clubhouse or I do it at work on my own time.

Rusty sure is getting big. Recently we have noticed he is getting really thick, or what the rest of the world calls "normal." In my family normal means tall and thin. All of the boys who have hit puberty are all between 6'2" to 6'5 1/4." We are hoping Scottie's leukemia and all of the chemotherapy will not be a deterrant to his height and growth. They have had to pump him full of so many different drugs that you can only wonder how it will affect him.

For those of you who don't know my brother Scott, 14, born 7th of 8, was diagnosed with ALL,
Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia. He is the one on our laps in the picture. You can read about ALL at: http://www.leukemia-lymphoma.org/all_page?item_id=7049&viewmode=print. Many of the signs you won't even realize are signs of it. The local paper just did a story on him and the football our great uncle Gene got for him. The article does a good job of catching Scott's dry sense of humor. You can read it at: http://www.cdapress.com/articles/2007/05/10/sports/sports01.txt. The football was signed by the entire 2006 MWC Champion BYU football team and Coaching Staff. Uncle Gene is friends with the BYU Alumni Director who we also want to thank, and they got it done. For updates on Scott's health: http://www.ldschinese.com/scott/. My brother Josh maintains the site and my mom (and sometimes dad) post updates.

I have to say that as a brother who lives so far away I often have an ongoing battle in my head. Scott is my Mini-Me. We look like twins born 14 years apart. Our pictures when we were young show that. My battle comes from wanting to be there as a brother and support him and help where I can, yet having my own family to care for and support. We live 1000 miles away and there isn't a lot I can do to help. I won't get into it any more than that, but that is one of my internal thought processes.

My other battle comes from trying to balance my time. I am gone from 6am to 6pm every day, sometimes 7pm. I have not been able to make time to exercise the past couple of months and it is bugging me. Part of it has been my hamstring bugging me and a sore ankle, but I think most of it is just lack of motivation. I played on a flag football team this spring and that was good motivation but now I am lacking that except for pick-up ball on Saturdays. And we won't be able to go to the beach house in Newport this year, so I lost that motivation as well. If anyone has some motivation besides just not wanting to be fat and die young of heart disease, let me know. I have a good attitude about it earlier in the day but by the time I get home I am too tired to work out and I need to be there to help with the kids and dinner. Other than that, Life is good.

Monday, Monday

Well back to what we call normal. Elaine flies out tonight to go home. She has been great to have around. She has lightened our load considerably this past week. Stone and Rusty just love having her and anyone else that comes to visit stay the night. They already started getting sad before bed last night when they realized she was going to be leaving on Monday.

Van is doing well. He was nearly back up to his birth weight of 6 lb within 48 hours. He is nursing well and Janna seems to be doing well except for having to wake every 3 hours to feed him at night. She has been able to take long naps in the afternoon with other adults in the house to watch Stone and Rusty. We are excited for this coming weekend to get here as both my parents and Janna's parents will be coming to town. We are blessing Van at church this coming Sunday.

I also forgot to mention that I took Janna to the Gwen Stefani concert on May 2. Our friends, Tim & Shannon, took care of Stone and Rusty for us and we took the train a good part of the way in to the Pepsi Center. Lady Sovereign opened the show. I would have to give her and her 15 year old perception a thumbs down. As she cussed up a storm and tried what I would call a "British-female-teen-wannabe-Beasty-Boys." I really don't think we would have been hurt to miss her trainwreck of a performance. It wouldn't have hurt my feelings to never have to see the feminine men sitting in our seats either. Akon, who sings Sweet Escape with Gwen, sung about 7-8 songs. I liked about half of them which were the ones that you hear on the radio. He is from Senegal but speaks as if he is from Jamaica, very Rastafarian influenced. I have one of his songs on my playlist for the blog. Finally, at about 10 o'clock Gwen started. She put on a great show. We didn't bring our camera so we didn't any good pictures of her. I did have my Sony Ericsson Walkman W810i cell phone with me. It has a 2.0 megapixel camera on it but it lacks clarity on anything more than 40 feet away. We had a good time though and I think Janna really liked it. Her goal was to get through the date of the concert and then the baby could come anytime. I am glad I brought my custom earplugs to wear throughout the concert because with them in it was bearable. I wish I would have had them in '99 for that Creed Concert. I still think I feel the effects of that concert at times.

The train is definitely the way to go to the big events downtown. You don't have to find and pay for parking, which is never cheap. The train goes right by Invesco Field at Mile High (where the Denver Broncos play if you are scratching your head), the Pepsi Center & 6 Flags/Elitch Gardens, and stops at Union Station which is about 2-3 blocks from Coors Field where the Rockies play. When you come out of Union Station in the evening, after you get through the cigarette smoke, you immediately begin to salivate from the plethora of smells along the streets. There are several upscale eateries for several blocks.

Finally Home

We are home finally. The boys were so excited to see us. They had to do extra bloodwork on Janna right as we were finally leaving and then we had to wait for the results for almost an hour. Seems like they could have done that during one of the 4 hours we had to sit around waiting til Van was able to eat again. Anyway they are home now and doing well.

Ready To Get Out Of Here

Hi again. We are at the hospital still just waiting to be discharged. The pediatrician wanted Van to eat a couple more times before he went home. He is eating right now though so we should be able to head home after Janna eats dinner. Van has very thick, blonde hair. Everything has gone well thus far for both Janna and Van. He sleeps a lot and so does she. All of Van's tests have gone well and he is a normal little boy. He has lost about 5 ounces since birth but is eating well now so he should be fine.

On a side note, we were happy to see Blake Lewis make the American Idol finals. Melinda was good but she's no Blake. We are pretty bored here at the hospital. Janna is ready to go home. Elaine is running out of things to do with the boys and they want to see mommy and Van. Hey, what about me?

More Pictures of Van

Van Scott Lee

Van was born at 6:32am, weighs in at 6 lb even, 19 1/2 inches long.

Janna did great and is up on her feet already, no epidural. (But she says never again!)

All Set, Now We Wait

Here she is now. She's just trying to get comfortable in the hospital bed if that is at all possible. They are going to give her a dose of prostin finally in a few minutes.

Check back in the morning for an update if you don't get a phone call.

Getting Closer

Here was Janna just before she changed into her hospital gown.

Here We Go

So today I decided to start a blog because I enjoy reading my friend's blogs and because today is a great day in our family's history. Janna was due yesterday with our 3rd child and will be going in tonight to start the process. She hasn't been able to have any of our kids traditionally because she has had to be induced with all of them. It seems like that is a lot more common these days, but it would be fun (looking back on the experience obviously) to get woken up in the middle of the night and have a little bit of excitement.

I'm trying to get caught up at work because I will be gone the rest of the week. Janna's mom, Elaine, is flying in today to help with the boys. She has been so helpful with each delivery. Stone and Rusty are really excited to have the baby finally be here and to have their grandma come watch them.

We bought a minivan last week from our friends Tim & Shannon Dickman. They helped us take care of a need for more room in the car. The Honda just isn't big enough anymore. Now it's time to get the Accord ready to sell. I am waiting for some parts I have to replace and then I have to detail it. I also believe it is time to sell the old Dodge van. I will probably sell it on Craigslist.com as a work van. It runs well and will be useful for someone. I just don't drive it anymore since I have a work truck and now we have the minivan.

Today is my brother Benji's birthday. Happy Birthday Benji, 27 years young.