Luke

A few pictures to catch up with Luke's growth... He hasn't had his two month check up yet but I took him in to the doctor today and he was already ten and a half pounds! He's getting so big! We love having him in our little family! Jack loves his little brother!

 

Great Grandma Johnson

Brennon Loves his new little cousin!

Aunt Erin, Jack and Luke

Grandma Boudrero put the timer down his jammas... 

I don't think that he liked it very much, 

but it sure was funny!

First Christmas Together!

Jack and Luke first Christmas together! We had a lot of fun decorating and spending time with family!

Jack especially loved the tree! He would say "WOW" and "HOT", it was so cute! Luke would always

 calm down if we cuddles him while he checked out all the lights on the Christmas tree

Jack LOVES to give Luke kisses! Whenever he

notices Luke, no matter where Luke is, Jack will

go out of his way to give him kisses!!!

Baby Luke

     We are finally home from the hospital.  It seems like we were there for such a long time.  Any of you who had to stay more than two days after having a baby are probably grumbling at me right now.  We did make it out of there pretty quick.  Our doctor gave us the go ahead to leave a few hours before the mandatory 48 hour mark.  He told us to have a final dinner, on the house (hospital), and then get home.

     We made it home around 7:00 pm and it was sure a nice feeling.  My mom brought Jack over about fifteen minutes later.  Jack instantly noticed Luke as they came in the door.  His look of great curiousity showed on his face and he pointed in Luke's direction.  As soon as Bonnie put him down he bee-lined for Melissa, who was holding Luke.  He pointed at Luke and looked up at me, almost demanding an explanation.

     He then started to show his affection by placing his hand on Luke's face a bit more roughly than we would have liked.  Melissa quickly showed him how to be gentle and soft with his new little brother.

     Jack soon became side-tracked with toys, food, and other toddler wonders.  Melissa's parents, brother Rodney, and Grandma Carma Boudrero arrived soon after.  Luke was passed around and enjoyed by all, especially Rodney who poked fun at Luke's scrawny appearance.

Click on any of these photos to see more photos.

Luke, Our Veteran's Day Baby

     Our new baby boy was born yesterday, 11/11/2009, at 11:11 P.M. His name is Luke Glenn Bair.  He is 19 inches long and weighs 6 pounds and 6 ounces.  We were eating at Cafe Sabor with an old Army buddy of mine, Thayne, and his wife Krystal, when Melissa started to have her contractions. Things moved pretty quickly as we arrived at my parents house to pick up Jack. My mother, Bonnie, was more than happy to keep Jack while we rushed up to the hospital. We made it to the Logan Regional Hospital around 7:00 P.M.

     Melissa had an epidural and after about 4 hours of patient waiting it was time to push. They had everything all set up and Melissa started pushing at around 11:05 P.M. Literally 5 good pushes later our new little one was born. He is small for his age (two days overdue) and so they are taking extra precautions to watch his blood sugar levels but so far everything is checking out fine.
     Melissa did a wonderful job and I am very proud of her. She is recovering just fine and I can see sadness in her eyes every time Luke is taken out of her arms for any reason. We are excited to play the two child game and can't wait to introduce Jack to his new little brother.
     We are pretty committed to wait a few years before having anymore kids but I don't know how long I can wait because now I want two little girls.

Click on the image to see more photos.

Videos of Jack

Jack's Table Dance



Playing in the Leaves

Name Suggestions

     By popular demand we are accepting name suggestions.  Please click on the title of this post 'Name Suggestions' and then scroll down (if needed) to the comment box.  You can comment as annonymous or choose any of the services which you might have an account with to login in and post a comment through that account.  Post any name suggestions you have for our next child, or future children.  We are pretty set on choosing from Scott, Luke, or Robert (see the poll) but if you make a strong enough case for your suggested name, we will take it into consideration.  Have fun!
     Originally we wanted to name Jack, Jack Daniel Bair. We decided that would be complicated and didn't want Jack competing with Jack Daniel's alchohol. Then we decided we would name our second boy Daniel. Same situation. We just decided it could be compicated or troublesome down the road. What do you think? Are we overthinking the situation?

Jack's First Birthday

     November 4, 2009 Jack turned one year old.  We had a small party at our neighborhood community center. Jack got a lot of attention which is what we wanted.  We weren't sure what to do or how to plan a little kid's first birthday party but we decided that the important thing was that Jack felt comfortable and had a good time.  We think that we succeeded in that.

     There were about six other kids at the party.  Jack wandered around watching them play and doing his best to join in.  He got a lot of one-on-one time with family members and friends.  He was very hesitant to sit down and open his presents because he wanted to keep playing.  Once he started to open them though he was really intrigued.  Thank you to our neighbor and friend Abby for helping Jack to open his gifts.

    The one part of the party where we probably failed to make Jack feel comfortable and secure is when we stripped him down to his diaper and sat him on a table with a giant cupcake.  As people gathered around he seemed tormented between being concerned and enjoying his tasty treat.  We were hoping that he would dig right in and massacre the cupcake, alas, he did not.  Even trying to coerce him into, going at it himself, did not work and so I had to feed it to him.  He did enjoy it thoroughly though.

     After the party subsided, all of our guests stayed to help us clean up.  Thank you!  Also, thank you to everyone who sent/brought gifts for Jack and for the cards.  Jack loves playing with his new toys, reading his new books, and his new clothes look great on him.  He especially seems to love his Batman shirt.

Jack Be Nimble

This year for Halloween we dressed Jack up in a little devil outfit. I was a little devil for my first Halloween. Unfortunately we didn't make it very far in our trick-or-treating this year. On our third stop, which happened to be Jack's Great Grandma's house, Jack had an accident. Not his usual "blow-out" accident either, which we would have preferred in this case. In fact we were prepared for a blow-out with a backup Halloween outfit on hand, just in case.

While at Great Grandma's house, Jack was exploring around. Melissa noticed that his costume needed an adjustment so she moved toward Jack to fix it. Lately loves to be chased and really exagerates the urgency to move when we approach him unexpectedly. Jack stumbled overhimself and fell to the floor hitting his forehead, just above his right eyebrow, on the way down. The object he hit isn't absolutely certain but we think it was the wooden base of a table.

Jack screamed and cried for about five minutes while we dabbed at the blood with tissues and tried calming him down. During that time I felt like he would not calm down and it seemed like there was an awful lot of blood. I was a bit worried but after about five minutes of crying Jack got distracted by something and calmed himself down. The gash seemed pretty deep but Melissa and I haven't dealt with anything like that before. We weren't sure whether to take him to the hospital to see if he needed stiches or not.

At this point Jack was so calm and relaxed that it really didn't seem necessary to take him in to be checked out. We still felt a little bit uneasy with the apparent depth of the gash. After a short spell at my parents house we decided that we just couldn't rest easy unless we had it checked out. We had tried affixing a butterfly bandage on the wound but it was too close to his eyelid to get a proper hold. So we set off to the hospital.
The doctor who helped us out was glad that we brought him in. He said that the wound was too deep for "glue" (not sure what kind of glue???) and that Jack would need stitches. I got the feeling that Jack would have been fine without the stitches but the doctor felt confident that with them there would be practically no scarring. Jack was a real champ during the procedure and didn't cry as much as I would have expected although I wasn't in the room while they were stitching him up. I went in right afterwards and he was all smiles.

Jack loved the attention he got from all of the nurses. His backup outfit was a jack-o-lantern onsie and the nurses just could not get over the fact that his name was Jack and he was a jack-o-lantern...

By the time we were finally finished at the hospital and back home it was already about 9:30. We noticed our neighbor's lights were on so we took Jack over for one last trick-or-treat. He didn't show any signs of distress from the events of the night and he seemed to thoroughly enjoy his first Halloween.

Note: Melissa custom-made that trick-or-treat bag by hand for Jack.

Fun Blog Acronyms

     I thought it would be fun to come up with a list of acronyms for BLOG or BLOGS.  Please comment on this post with your acronyms and make sure you click on the comments link to see everyone else's.

Belligerent

Little

Ornery

Gnomes

My Daily Bus Ride

     My journey to classes every day starts by parking in a far corner of the Logan Smith's Food store parking lot.  Earlier in the day there is no activity in the parking lot, only hurried students and bus patrons rushing to catch their bus on time.  After parking, I make my way to the CVTD roundabout and jump on to the bus covering route 1.  I could get on route 4 because both routes stop at my destination, USU, but bus one guarantees an interesting view into the subculture of Logan City bus riders.
     Practically all of the patrons of bus number one are students on their way to classes, like myself.  I see the same people day after day and I've determined that we must share similar class schedules.  Some of the patrons, however,  seemingly just ride route one to be riding it.  They are there when I get on the bus to go to campus and often times they are there when I catch the bus home from campus.

     One bus driver in particular adds to the strange mix with her googly eyed holographic glasses.  She tends to stir up the mix of weirdos and some strange conversations ensue.  During the coldest day of the season (so far) one man was wearing shorts and sandals.  Another man rides, I'm sure, just waiting for the LDS missionaries to get on so that he can tease them about riding up to campus to see girls (I've heard him tease them about this at least three times now).  One lady pulls the "signal for stop" cord at every stop but doesn't get off!  Innevitably someone pulls the cord for the bus to stop at the main campus stop (the bus stops there every time to pick up people anyway) and at the bus terminal.

     I may update this post as I remember more details or as I witness new and strange bus riding events.

Blood Work

     My friend Trevin Prince has found what I consider to be great success with some of his latest artwork.  I have known Trevin for almost ten years now and I have always admired his artistic abilities.  I am intrigued with his methods which may be viewed as unconventional or even unsettling to some.   Through a very controlled and professional process Trevin has painted some amazing artwork with his own blood.  This method isn't a prick of the finger followed by finger painting on the wall.
     I may alter this post as I learn more about the process.  My current understanding is that Trevin's blood is drawn at a hospital by a nurse.  He then mixes it with a resin to create the medium for his work.  The older the blood is, the darker it gets.  I am really amazed by some of his work and I encourage you to check it out.

Trevin Prince - Blood Work

Utah State University

     I am currently attending Utah State.  I am nearly a Senior as far as credit hours are concerned, however, I still feel like a Freshman.  I am in the Undeclared Business program right now with hopes of applying to the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business after Spring semester 2010.

     I love attending Utah State.  It is a beautiful campus with great instructors and a good collection of students.  There is a great feeling associated with being on campus.  This semester (Fall 2009) I am taking four classes.  Managerial Accounting, Life in the Universe, International Economics, and Management Information Systems.

All About Jack

     Most of you know Jack.  This post is for those of you who don't.  Jack was born on November 4, 2008 as Jack Randall Bair.  He weighed 9 pounds and 3 ounces at birth with a full head of hair.

    His first birthday is coming up quick.  It is amazing to watch your first child go through different stages of development.  With his latest developments we feel like he is already a year old!  He can walk with ease and he has started dancing whenever he hears music.  His is starting to make sounds on command, "Jack, what does the owl say....  'whooo, whooo.' "
     We bought him a toddler bed which he has slept on only a few times.  We only lay him on the toddler bed when he falls asleep in our arms or on his own on the floor.  He absolutely hates bedtime and won't stay in his bed if he is awake when we put him down to sleep for the night so he still spends most of his nights in his crib.
     His newest phases include: handing you stuff that you don't need at the moment, holding objects similar to cell phones up to his ear, and running away from you screaming if you growl at him while making a motion like you are going to chase him.

Google

     Most of you have a preferred search engine that you have been using since middle school.   As for me, I have gone through the search engine mill twice over.  I started early on with Yahoo.  I then discovered Webcrawler.  I dabbled with Altavista, MSN, Lycos, and many others.  Once I discovered Google, I haven't looked back.  Thank you to James for introducing me to it.
     I only used Google as a search engine for many years.  My sister Sheba started using Google Picasa Web Albums to send photos to family and friends.  With it's corresponding Photo Viewing/editing software, Picasa turned out to be another great option for me.  This opened my eyes to the wonderful world of Google.  I now use Gmail (Google email), Google Maps (similar to Mapquest), Google Earth (explore the earth from the convenience of your PC), and now Blogger (blogspot.com) to create this blog.  There are many other Google applications and benefits but I'll let Google explain all that.  If you are even slightly interested please click here to learn more;  http://www.google.com/intl/en/options/
     Although I haven't explored all of the Google options, I haven't run into any yet that are a pay-to-use service unless you need more storage space in which case you can purchase additional.  With Gmail you get a dynamic amount of storage space, that is, they are continually upgrading the amount of space you have.  I currently have 7385 MB (7.4 GB) of total storage space for emails at no charge.  That is a lot of storage space!!
     I recently downloaded Google Chrome, a web browser.  I don't have a real opinion on it yet but it boasts speed and security.  It is also visually pleasing with many unique themes to choose from.  Perhaps I will dedicate a post to Chrome after I have more hands on time with it.
    Now I'd like some feedback.  Have you used any Google applications?  What are your opinions about them.  What search engine, browser, and so on do you use or prefer?

Welcome Blog

Hello friends and family. Welcome to The Bair Den and thank you for taking an interest in our blog. I, Steve, will be the primary author of this blog although Melissa may choose to post something from time to time. We may post some pictures of our kid(s) here but I plan to continue using Picasa as our primary means of sending out photos.

Join us on Facebook! Both Melissa and I (Steve) check our Facebook pages virtually every day. We often post small tidbits, news, and things we find interesting or humorous. Our main intent of this blog is to post more detail about more significant events in our lives and to connect to our other family members and friends who blog.

We love feedback! Please comment or respond to our posts. If you can't think of any responses of discourse, press a button! I've added a gadget to allow you to 'like, dislike, etc.'; and don't worry, if you dislike a post, it doesn't show us who you are.

I love to write. If you think of any experiences that we have had together that you think would make a great story for the blog then please remind me of the event and I will do my best to bring the story back to life for all to enjoy.

Feedback: encouraged. Suggestions: encouraged. Constructive Criticism: begrudgingly encouraged.

Once again, welcome to The Bair Den!