Life On Planet Black

School's about to begin...

2011-08-06T13:04:00.003-04:00

Wow, what a week the past few weeks have been. Getting ready for school to start has been super busy! From shopping for pencils and crayons to pillow cases and new shoes and socks, we have been to just about every store possible!! Mackenzie is so excited to start kindergarten. While, I on the other hand, can't believe my big girl is getting ready to start kindergarten- her school career is about to begin. How can that even be possible? It just seems like yesterday I was cuddling with my first born in the hospital. How could 5, almost 6 years have gone by that quick? I am very excited for her though. She's going to learn so many new and amazing things. I'm excited to see how she progresses as she learns new things this year.

Vaca

2011-07-28T14:49:00.004-04:00

Parker and I got to take a trip without the kids to Clearwater/St. Petersburg, FL. to visit Shana and Jim. It was our first trip without the kids in 7 years!! We had a great time. However, by the end of the week we were missing the girls!

Here we are with the Hyatt in the background

The view from our room!

And it wouldn't be complete without an awesome pic of the beach!

New baby

2011-03-19T13:30:00.001-04:00

I am so thrilled to say that I am going to have a new niece or nephew. Lauren called yesterday to tell me that she's pregnant with baby #3!! Yay! She is due approx. Dec. 5, 2011. We are praying for a healthy, happy baby! Congrats to the Barnes clan!

2011-02-12T21:48:00.002-05:00

I know I haven't been on here in a while, but if you look at my blog every now and again then I hope you do now. This little guy needs many prayers. The picture is a little old. He's actually 18 months right now. He's the son of my friend at work who had to have open heart surgery the day after he was born. He also had open heart surgery again in December. Well, he went to his 2 month post op visit and they found that the pressure in his heart has not gone down like it should have. He had a sleep study done to see if he has sleep apnea (which can raise the pressure in your heart). If he does, then he will have his tonsils and adenoids taken out. If not, then they wait another 2 months to go back to the cardiologist. If at that time the pressure in his heart hasn't gone down or gotten worse, he will be diagnosed with pulmonary artery hypertension which is terminal. He would only live to his teens or 20's. Please pray for healing for this little guy's heart! He needs a miracle right now!

2010-11-02T20:59:00.003-04:00

The girls outside with their pumpkins.

Mackenzie helping clean out the inside of the pumpkin

Ariel and my little Monkey!

What a month it has been!

2010-09-18T14:19:00.002-04:00

Mackenzie's 1st Day of Ballet

1st Day of Preschool

Peyton exhausted the day after her 2nd birthday party!

Peyton's 2nd Birthday!

Our Big Week

2010-09-10T12:30:00.002-04:00

Wow, what a big week it has been for us! Mackenzie started preschool yesterday at Legacy Christian School. She has been so excited about going to school and all the new things she will learn. We had talked about it every day for about 2 weeks leading up to the big day so that she would be prepared for what would happen. I thought she would be nervous about the fact that Mommy wasn't going to walk her into school and take her to her classroom. At her school, they have a drop off line so you just pull up to the school and they have a bunch of teachers out there to take the kids out of the car and walk them into school. It was so sad to see my once little baby now walking into school for her first day of preschool. She has grown up so fast. I think that day was harder on me than her! She had so much fun that day though. She even met a new friend but couldn't remember her friend's name!
Today she started ballet class. Her class is half tap and half ballet. They have a waiting area for all of the parents and siblings to watch outside of the ballet room. The windows are such that you can see in but they can't see out as to not distract the kids. It was so cute watching her. The past 2 days have made me realize how much she has grown up in the past year and what a big girl she is now. She's not the shy little 2 year old that she was only 3 short years ago where she wouldn't leave mommy's side let alone talk to someone she has never met before.
On top of that, Peyton had her 2 year check up. The doctor was happy with her development and how well she communicates. She speaks so much better than Mackenzie did at her age. She has been speaking in sentences for months now. Her stats are:

weight: 27 lbs. 14 oz. (75th percentile)
height: 34" (50th percentile)

I don't think she will be as tall as Mackenzie but we'll see! So far she's falling behind what Mackenzie was at her age for height.

I will post pictures this weekend hopefully!

Fun in the Sun

2010-06-18T19:06:00.001-04:00

2010-06-03T21:59:00.002-04:00

So, I guess I'm not very good at this blogging thing! It has been so long since I have posted anything on here. Not much has happened since my last post. The girls are growing like weeds! Peyton learns more everyday from her big sister. She's such a talker now. Mackenzie teaches her so many words....some better than others! We went on a family vacation to South Carolina in April. It was so much fun. Mackenzie had a blast at the beach and this was Peyton's first trip to the beach. She didn't care for the water as much as Mackenzie did at her age!

In a few months we will be preparing to send Mackenzie to preschool. I can't believe my little girl will be 5 this year and already a preschooler! How time flies. She will love it though. She's such a smart little girl....I'm a little biased though!

I will update with some new photos of the girls soon.

My little walker

2010-02-26T10:45:00.003-05:00

Don't know why this is sideways. I couldn't figure out how to flip it. But anyways, here's a little video of Peyton walking!

I'm back!!

2010-02-23T21:10:00.002-05:00

Wow, it has been forever since I have posted anything on our blog! So much has happened since I last posted. We have had the holidays and are almost to spring. Christmas time was so exciting this year for Mackenzie. She was really into Santa Claus coming to deliver her presents and helping with the Christmas tree. It was so much fun to relive the excitement of Christmas through the eyes of a child. New Years was spent at Lauren's house celebrating Sydney's 4th birthday. We had lots of fun. It's hard to believe the girls are 4. How time flies! Fast forward to this past week....Peyton finally started walking!!! Yay! We never thought it would happen because up until this week she really didn't care about walking and had no want to even try it half the time. But this week she decided she was going to do it and boy is she such a good walker now! We've also been researching preschools for Mackenzie for next year. I can't believe my little girl is ready for preschool. How sad! She is such a smart girl and has been really into learning her letters and writing them and her name. It's so fun to see her grow and learn.

2009-12-10T20:59:00.002-05:00

Today we went to the pediatrician for Peyton's 15 month check up and Mackenzie's 4 yr old check up. Everything went very well. Here are their stats:

Mackenzie:
weight: 42 lbs (80th percentile)
height: 42 1/2" (95th percentile)

Peyton:
weight: 24 lbs. (85th percentile)
height: 31 1/2" (80th percentile)

Peyton didn't grow a whole lot from her last appointment at 12 months. She is about a pound and an inch behind what Mackenzie was at her age. Mackenzie grew like 3 or 4 inches in the last year. She's growing like a weed! I think she's going to be tall and skinny! Dr. Kain said she's really tall for her age. Not surprising since her Grandpa Black is like 6'5"! Peyton also had to get 3 shots today which she cried the entire time, but big sis Mackenzie was right there by her side consoling her! It was so cute!!

One Crazy Week

2009-12-04T21:59:00.002-05:00

I know I haven't been on our blog in such a long time. It has been the craziest week this week. It's hard to believe that last week was Thanksgiving. So let's start at the beginning.....last Thursday was Thanksgiving. We had a great day with our families, spending time laughing and talking. It was also somewhat of a sad day since that was the last time we got to see Shana and Jim before they set out to move to the sunshine state of Florida. We will miss them living so close to us and having all of our Sunday cook outs in the summer. Moving on to Saturday....Parker's Grandma Rosie passed away. What a sweet lady! And boy could she talk your ear off. She always had a story to tell or something to say. So then we had to work Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday brought in the cold, rainy weather and Grandma Rosie's viewing. Such a sad time and it didn't look like the Grandma Rosie we all remember. Thursday was the funeral and burial. Not exactly a good day to say the least. So today we decide we are going to run errands and then go get our Christmas tree. We always to go the Boy Scouts Christmas tree stand in Fishers at Marsh. Cheap live trees and the money goes to the Boy Scouts. So we get home, get it in the stand, and takes about an hour or so to decorate it. Then all of a sudden we hear a loud crash only to find out the tree had fallen over and ornaments were scattered onto the floor- some of them were broken. So we rig it back up and tie it to the window!! Dad would be so proud! There were so many trees when I was a kid that we had to do that to keep the tree up. I think Dad became a pro at keeping the tree standing. So, needless to say, I think next year we will have an artificial tree!!! Maybe tomorrow morning I will tackle redecorating it!

Halloween

2009-11-05T07:27:00.003-05:00

The girls had fun trick or treating on Halloween. Or should I say...Mackenzie had fun on Halloween. Peyton didn't really care about Halloween. She just wanted out of her Elmo costume. It was soooo cute though!!

Diaper change

2009-10-19T15:37:00.006-04:00

Mackenzie wanted to be a little mommy and help me out by changing Peyton's diaper. So, I let her just to see how she would do because she is so good at changing her baby's diapers. I wanted her to see that it isn't as easy changing a moving baby!! She actually did a pretty good job and Peyton just smiled and had a great time. Mackenzie is such a great helper!

Mackenzie's self haircut

2009-10-15T07:41:00.000-04:00

Here's the nice new hairdo that Mackenzie gave herself last week. She decided to take it upon herself to cut her bangs. Isn't it so pretty?!!

2009-10-06T20:55:00.001-04:00

I love you horse!!

2009-09-30T21:52:00.000-04:00

Peyton kissing the rocking horse! She is such a funny little girl!

2009-09-27T20:30:00.000-04:00

Here are some pics of our new knobs and pulls we put on our cabinets. It's so nice to have something to use to open the cabinets finally! We are in the process of finding some new curtains to replace those horrid vertical blinds on our sliding door and then painting the kitchen red. I can't wait until it's done. It will look so much better!

Mackenzie got her hair cut on Saturday. She did such a great job holding still. She got to watch Dora while getting her hair cut and got to sit in the princess jeep too! She was so excited about that! I think they cut off about 2-3 inches. She needed that much cut off. Her hair looks so much better!

For those of you who wanted an update on baby Abrahm, he is doing very well. He had open heart surgery the day after he was born. They left his chest open to make sure the swelling went down before they closed it. So they were going to close his chest a day or 2 after surgery. His mom got released from the hospital on Wednesday and was able to go and see him for the first time since delivery. She was obviously very excited to go be with him. He is still on a ventilator but they were expecting to take him off of it within the week since he was not requiring much assistance from it. Yay! He will stay in the hospital for a month before he is able to go home. The doctors say he will have no lasting effects from this. The only thing he will require is that he will see a cardiologist for the rest of his life and will need echocardiograms probably every year for the rest of his life. So, all around great news. Please continue to keep them in your thoughts and prayers. The next month until he is able to go home will be a long one for them.

Mama & Dada

2009-09-24T20:54:00.000-04:00

Peyton can say Mama and Dada. But, when you ask her to say Mama she will say Dada! She's such a mommy's girl. Since when did Dada become the thing to say!!! She's my little girl!

Rough Day

2009-09-21T20:30:00.000-04:00

So today was a particularly sad day for me. One of my friends who is also one of my co-workers was being induced today to have her second baby at the hospital we work at. She delivered her baby boy this morning after only 4 1/2 hours of labor. Amazing! While we were all anxiously waiting on the news of the baby's arrival, we got an order for a chest xray on a baby in the nursery who just happened to be her brand new baby boy, Abrahm. Unfortunately that's how we got the news that the baby was born. So, I went up to the NICU to do the chest xray and was almost in tears when I saw how blue he looked feeling so sad for my friend. My heart was breaking for her as I listened to the doctors talk about what was wrong with the baby. He has what is called great vessel transposition. So the major vessels off the heart (aorta and pulmonary artery) are opposite of each other- meaning the aorta is where the pulmonary artery should be and vice versa. To make a long story short, Abrahm was transferred to Peyton Manning Children's Hospital where he under went a cardiac cath to put a hole in his heart to help the blood circulate better and will under go open heart surgery in the next day or 2 to correct the defect. While Abrahm is in good hands, it's all so shocking because they didn't know anything was wrong prior to delivery. It was sad for me to see my friends baby for the first time in the NICU with everyone working on him to figure out what was wrong. I guess when we think we have it bad or life has dealt us a blow, God always has a way to remind us that things aren't as bad as they could be. Please pray for baby Abrahm and his family!

Welcome to our blog

2009-09-19T09:19:00.001-04:00

Welcome to the Black Family blog!! We have created this blog for everyone to stay in touch with the goings on in our family and to watch the kids grow. I know there are family and friends who don't get to see the kids often so this is a great way to keep up with what they are up to!