A few of Tag's fans

Hey everyone - wanted to provide a quick slideshow of a few of Tag's fans who came to visit in the hospital and at the house.

Well first I want to share some updates on Kinsey. She is having quite a time lately with all of her grandparents giving her much-needed attention. Grammy was here for a week, and most of the time they spent driving back and forth to the hospital to see us, going to HEB (Kinsey's favorite errand), and watching Veggie Tales. Unfortunately, somehow we didn't take any pictures of that time, probably because I was pretty useless on the couch and Douglas had his tonsils out. Anyway, we are so grateful to Grammy for all of the fun, all of the groceries, and for bringing both of us patients anything we needed. She was up with us for 1am, 3am, and 5am feedings, and because of that, is now addicted to the tv show NCIS along with us :-). Grammy did snap this one shot of Kinsey sleeping - I'm not sure about the origin of the pajama choice here, but this is only one of the many positions that our little punkin sleeps in throughout the night - she is really fun to watch.Well, Grammy had to go back home and so Nana and Pops have moved in to help us out. I honestly don't know what we would do around here without the help. It is such a blessing to have such wonderful family and friends. Our church family has been bringing us delicious meals all week and one of those generous families is even coming to mow our lawn tomorrow!!!

So back to Kinsey. She is having a blast with Nana and Pops - they are doing a lot of water activities together. We got an Elmo sprinkler toy for Kinsey last week and she really loves it. Here she is playing with it today with Pops.
They also went to the Splash Park today. When they came in, the first thing Kinsey said to me was "That was not kind what the little boy did at the splash park mommy". Apparently a little boy had a bucket and was dumping full buckets of water on the little girls' heads. Kinsey is learning a lot these days about being kind and this was definitely not kind behavior. She told me that she doesn't ever want to do that. Other than the bully, she had a great time and they are going back tomorrow.

The other fun thing they did today was get snow cones. Daddy's doctor said that really cold things would help his throat, so Nana and Pops and Kinsey went to get fun snow cones - Kinsey picked blueberry and was thrilled at the effect it had on her tongue...

So, speaking of Daddy, his surgery went well, it only took 15 minutes. Unfortunately, the pain has been really intense. He is on drugs, but they don't do much to ease the pain. The doctor said that the past couple of days and the next few are going to be really bad and then the pain will start to decrease. In the meantime, we are doing all we can to keep him comfortable, hydrated, and loved on. His baby boy is taking care of the last part for us - Daddy says so far sleeping with Tag is the best medicine...They've gotten some really good snuggle time while Daddy hangs out on the "sick couch". Before the surgery, Daddy gave Taggart his first bath at home. He really enjoyed getting his hair washed and snuggling in the towel.As you can see, Taggart has had plenty of awake and alert time. He loves to try to focus on us and he seems fascinated with lights already. And he loves his Daddy's shoulder, just like his big sister did.On Wednesday my friend Molly came to visit. Here she is with Tag - note his outfit.
Here she is less than an hour later - notice anything different?
While Mol was holding him, she said, "Hmmm what is this face?" and less than 5 seconds later, we heard a HUGE rumble from his diaper and during the changing session, we were forced to change outfits :-). I'm sure at some point, poopy diapers will be annoying, but honestly, right now we are so proud of every dirty diaper because that means he's getting good food from Mommy. He had his first doctor's visit on Tuesday and he did great! He had gained 2 oz in 2 days which doesn't sound like much, but it's right on track. And like I said, the diaper count is good, so we are happy campers around here. For me, it's a huge win to be able to nurse - I tried so hard with Kinsey and it was very disillusioning to have to give up. So this time, I'm just thrilled every time I get to feed him and so grateful for the blessing that it is to be able to feed my little boy. I can't say I enjoy sleeping for less than 2 hours at a time, BUT it's all worth it. Here are some more fun pics of our little angel...

He is always making faces in his sleep and his smiles look so happy. I don't care if it's joy or gas, I love to see my little boy smile. Here's a fun trip down memory lane -let us know your opinion - does he resemble his big sister from two years ago???? And here he is begging me to let him sleep while I was trying to keep him awake to eat...
For our friend Dionne, here's another Tag pucker picture.We ran out of NCIS episodes on Tivo right after Douglas' surgery and we've needed something to entertain him during long hours on the couch. So we started watching Heroes on Netflix and we are totally hooked. Therefore, Tag's outfit today was very appropriate... Well, it's about time for Tag to eat again so I unfortunately have to take him out of his warm cocoon snuggling with Daddy and rudely change his diaper and coax him into wakefulness soon. We'll try to stay on top of posting pictures. Have a great week!

We are home!

Catching a nap today...

Hi everyone - sorry we haven't posted more pics until now. We came home yesterday and it is really nice to be here and not interrupted with a blood pressure machine and baby nurses and all of the noises of the hospital. Taggart is doing great - he is eating well and is going through plenty of diapers. We are all madly in love of course. It's amazing to have a teeny baby in the house again. Kinsey loves her little brother and is always wanting to see what he's doing. She has really enjoyed the extra attention from all of the grandparents lately, and that has been a huge blessing as mostly Mommy is sleeping and Daddy is trying to take care of everything else. So here are some shots from the last few days - will try to post more often :)

The Hallam men with their newest addition... Proud Daddy - Taggart Day 2

Taggart checking out his Daddy Proud Big Sister
Mommy and Taggart snuggle

Pray for us on Tuesday - Douglas loses his tonsils and Taggart has his first official doctor visit. Love to all!

Welcome Baby Taggart!

Born May 21st, 9:30am

8 lbs 5 oz

20 1/2 inches long

Perfect blessing from God!

The Countdown...

Hi everyone! Only two more days until my baby brother gets here! I am really excited about it, I can't wait to meet him!
In the meantime, we've been doing lots of fun things around here. Mommy says I won't remember someday that it was just the three of us before Taggart came along, but I'm having a pretty good time with it right now :-). So two weeks ago Daddy got strep throat, and this past Tuesday, Mommy got it, too. That was a real bummer for Mommy, BUT my Nana and Pops came to take care of me and I had a blast with them! We played lots of dress-up, changed Elmo's diaper tons of times, played on the playscape, made alphabet soup, and a thousand other games. Then Obi came to visit and he and Daddy took me on a date to the Inflatable play place, Pluckers (lunch = fries and ketchup), Cold Stone (ice cream), Kiddie Acres (pony rides and a strawberry snow cone), and then somehow I still took a nap that afternoon :-). By Thursday Mommy was feeling better and she got to play with me again. On Friday, we ran errands, which is one of my favorite things because we get to go lots of places and see lots of fun people, and we always end up at HEB and I get a Buddy Buck and a toy from their machine and if you haven't done that, you should because it ROCKS!!! Mommy says I'm really fun to run errands with and she has a sneaking feeling it won't be so easy when there are two kids to get in and out of the car at each stop! Then Friday night we got to go to dinner with Keith and Barie and a bunch of friends from church to celebrate Keith's birthday! I really like queso and bell peppers and I got to eat a lot of both!
Saturday was lots of fun, too. My good friend Dionne is always coming up with really fun things to do. She told Mommy about this thing on Saturday called the Round Rock the Boat Regatta. It was at a big park here and it was some kind of crazy!! First we went and watched a "Kite Demonstration", which was pretty tough since it wasn't very windy. They had some big kites but they spent most of their time on the ground. BUT, Jacob was there to show them how it's done. Here he is with my Nemo kite. Jacob is a good friend - he was very patient with me and showed me how to make the kite fly! We had a great spot in the shade there, so even though there wasn't much kite flying going on, we had some fun.

Then we played at the playground for a while until it was time for the Regatta. So here's the thing: the boats were all homemade and they had to be made out of CARDBOARD. I know what you're thinking, cardboard and water, what a GREAT combination! It was pretty funny. There was a kids round first and none of the boats sank, although one of them did tip over. Then it was time for the adult round. Those crazy people piled into their "boats". It was pretty cool. Here are a couple of them...

Is that crazy or what? Here's Jacob and Emma relaxing during the race...

So that was tons of fun and I was really glad we got out to see my first cardboard boat race! Then Saturday night we had another baseball game!! It was so fun, I am a HUGE fan. Especially when the chickens come out and race - that's just too cool.

Today was church and I had a great time with my teachers and and my friends there. We came home and played for a while and then took great naps. Then we did some work around the house to get things ready for Baby Taggart (that kid needs a lot of furniture for someone who they keep telling me is going to be really really little). And then Daddy found a gift certificate when he cleaned off his desk and so he took us on a family date to Macaroni Grill where I had some really yummy pasta and THEN on the way home we got to see something TOTALLY CRAZY!!! There is a bridge kind of near our house where the second largest colony of bats in North America lives. We drove by right when they were flying out and it was absolutely amazing!!!! There were hundreds of thousands of them and they were all going to eat bugs! We also saw a hawk swoop down and grab a bat in his claws, it was pretty cool. Daddy is always finding us really neat things to do like that. I like going on dates with Mommy and Daddy.

Here are some random shots from the last few days...

A way cute dress from my CC...

Kicking back in the rocker...
Making brownies with Daddy (these were supposed to be for my Nana's birthday, but she didn't get to come over so we made them in her honor)...
And finally me in my way-cute outfit from Nana that I wore to church today (I did have on shoes when I got there)...
So be checking in because this Wednesday we finally get to meet Baby Taggart and I'm pretty sure they'll be some way cute pictures of me holding a little teeny squirmy baby :). Have a great weeke everyone!!!

Happy Mother's Day everyone!

Happy Mother's Day to all of the Moms in our lives - we love you all! We are so happy for two of our good friends at church who have had a very special Mother's Day as they get to celebrate with brand new blessings this week. Jeremiah & Suzi Fabry had a little girl they named Aliya, and this morning Bret & Tomi Ostendorf had a little girl but I don't know her name yet. Hopefully this is triggering a chain reaction and the other 20 ladies due this month (only a slight exaggeration) will be delivering soon :). Here's a picture of most of the pregnant ladies at our church. Some, top left, are very newly pregnant and not showing at all. Others, like Tomi on the top right, me, Angela (next to me), Tabitha (4 from right top), and Laura (second from right bottom), are about ready to pop. Tomi is the one who had the baby this week. Angela is having twin boys any day now, and Laura and Tabitha and I are all due very soon. So hopefully more good news soon and we'll have to take pictures often so everyone can see how the church is growing :). Oh, and bottom right is Ashley with Payton (who was Jonas until he was born - yikes!). She was the first to deliver, and there are plenty of us in line behind her, although we are all hoping to not be surprised like they were :).

We are still in the countdown for our little boy. The c-section is scheduled for May 21st and Mommy couldn't be more ready! I have a feeling he's a big boy - he seems to take up a lot more space than Kinsey did, and he's definitely a lot more active. Lately I've been having a significant amount of heartburn and general discomfort. Yesterday at the grocery store, I actually lost feeling in my right leg - my little buddy must've sat on a nerve. It was pretty funny I'm sure to watch me try to shake around and get him to move while we were walking through the meat aisle (at least Dionne says it's a really funny mental picture). Kinsey is definitely aware that changes are coming. Randomly she'll say "I'm excited to meet my baby brother!" But she's also realizing that it's impacting her life - the other day she told Nana and Pops "Mommy has a baby in her tummy - but Daddy can still hold me." I've been trying hard not to tell her that it's because of the baby that I can't pick her up as much, but she's way too smart for us to fool her for long. I really can't wait to see how she is with him - I know she's going to be an amazing asset to us - - she loves to say "I'm a great helper!" when she gets things for us or when we talk about the baby brother coming. We're really thinking about getting her a full-time job. She is never happier than when she is working on something. This weekend she couldn't wait to help Daddy mow the lawn and she was out there with her little mower going over every inch of grass before he came out there. I've got to get some pictures of her with the plants - we planted herbs and tomatoes and some flowers recently and Kinsey loves taking care of the plants. Watering them is the highlight of her day and on the days when it rains I have to explain that today God is watering the plants for us and we will take care of them tomorrow. Last week we put together some toy shelves together and she was telling me that she needed a screwdriver and some screws to do her part. She actually was helping me screw them in, which is hilarious since she's only 2, but she really loved it. I didn't think she'd ever let the screwdriver go. The whole time she was saying "We are building something. I need to put this part together." And she was lifting up the pieces of wood and working so hard. The other funny thing that she's been doing lately is a reflection of how we've spent much of our time together - pretending to be at the doctor. She has gone with me to every OB appointment and every Endocrinologist appointment, which unfortunately have been pretty often. She can tell you exactly what will happen from the time we walk in the door: "we will take the elevator, I can push the button", "we have to wait our turn", to when we get in the room: "mommy will tee tee in the cup - we don't do that at home", "she will take your blood pressure", "we will measure mommy's tummy", "we will hear the heartbeat", "we will make another appointment", "now we will go in the elevator again". And so now she likes to pretend to take our blood pressure, measure our tummy's, listen to hearts, etc. She's been playing with a doctor's kit at her friend Emma's house and Emma's mommy Dionne says she's very intense about it.

So with all of those updates out of the way, onto the pictures :-). Things in the big girl room are going fantastic - she loves it and she sleeps great in there. She still loves playing in there and sleeping in there and she is so proud to call it her "big girl room". Every night she sleeps with "Big Elmo". We have two new additions to the bed - a Veggie Tales pillow and a Nemo pillow from Grammy. She's very particular about them - Kinsey sleeps on the Nemo pillow and Elmo sleeps on the Veggie Tales pillow. No substitutions :). We have a video monitor that we got for the baby, but we've really enjoyed using it in the meantime to watch Kinsey. So the other morning I saw her sleeping like this and I had to go in and take a picture. Last week it rained several days in a row and we went a little stir-crazy. So we put on the rain boots and got our umbrellas and went for a walk. Kinsey has an Elmo umbrella and she used it most of the walk, but after stomping in some puddles, she decided just letting the rain hit her on the head was ok and she got a little soggy. Here she is after the walk... On another rainy day, we took some silly pictures...


Bathtime is still a big hit, as long as we don't wash her hair (long story - she HATES it). So she likes to line up all her friends on the side of the tub and talk to them and then say "Mommy say hi to them". So here is Kinsey in Mommy's bathtub and left-to-right, this is Marlin, Nemo, Dory, Dude, Octopus, and Charlie's cousin Joe. Charlie is a yellow fish in HER bathtub and she told me that this orange guy is "his cousin I think" and we named him Joe.

This week we started watching The Backyardigans, which is a show on Nickelodeon. It's 5 animals who share backyards and go on imaginative adventures. They sing and dance so of course it's a big hit with Kinsey. There was a cowboy episode this week and immediately I started hearing "Mommy, I need my cowboy hat!" (remember a couple of months ago we got this hat at the rodeo with Obi & CC). So here she is wearing the cowboy hat watching the show...

I'll close it out with a few more recent Kinsey quotes:

- With respect to playdoh and getting it ready to use cookie cutters: "Mommy flat it for me"

- Learning to say I appreciate you "Mommy, I pretty-sated you"

- In the backyard on a beach towel that got wrinkled underneath her: "I need to straight the blanket up"

- On a walk: "Let's look around at what God made!"

- Mommy: "Who's the best Daddy?" Kinsey: "MY DADDY!"

- The morning after getting a thumbprint cookie with jelly in the middle from Starbucks: "Did Daddy bring me a cookie with some nice jelly on it? Was that SO kind of him?"

- Apparently Mommy has been saying "What!!!" when something crazy happens, similar to how she used to say "Shut up!" but now she's trying not to say that so it doesn't get repeated. Anyway, we took her to the doctor the other day to make sure she didn't get strep throat from Daddy (which she didn't) and on the way out she always gets a sticker. So I grabbed a Nemo sticker thinking she'd like that and in front of all the nurses and other families trying to check-out, she shrieks at the top of her lungs: "A Nemo sticker - WHAT!!!"

- A car horn honking loudly in the HEB parking lot today "Mommy that was so not cool."