Welcome to the world

On Sunday February 19th Grayson Emmett Shockey decided to join the world five weeks early.  He was born at 8:53 p.m. weighing 6 pounds 15 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long.
For five weeks early he's a big healthy boy. He began his entrance into the world Saturday afternoon and slowly joined us a short thirty one hours later. Due to the fact that he was born at 35 weeks gestation he was required to go to the NICU for 24 hours. Luckily our nurse was also a NICU nurse and Grayson scored an 8 & 9 on his apgar test so he was able to stay with us about two hours before they took him away. It is quite strange to go through labor and have your little one taken away. However, because he was early we were happy to let the nurses and doctors check him out and do whatever was necessary to be sure he was healthy. We were blessed Grayson only needed a little help keeping his temperature up and by his 1:30 a.m. feeding he was already out of the baby warmer and in his own little bassinet. Unfortunately due to the hospitals policy he was not able to join us in our room until 6:00 p.m. on Monday.  We could spend as much time with him as we wanted in the NICU as well as bring family in to see him. Tristan and Colin were able to go into the NICU also and meet their new brother unfortunately Liam was sick and he had to be over six to enter the NICU so he and Declan were unable to meet his brother until we went home.
We are extremely grateful for the amazing help from Aunt Lindsey, Gramma, and Uncle Brendan with Tristan, Colin, Liam and Declan. It was wonderful being able to focus on the delivery and Grayson and not have to worry about how they were doing. I know they did not even skip a beat when they realized I was gone and Lindsey was there to take care of them. Lindsey had a few more boys than just ours since we were having a sleepover with 3 friends at the time. So yes I left Lindsey with seven boys between 17 months and 10 years old. She did great of course and because we did not know what was going to happen with Grayson Uncle Brendan ended up taking the friends home around 11:00 that night. I had thought it was a safe time to have a sleepover before the baby was born. I guess it just sounded like way to much fun and Grayson wanted to join the crowd.


As you will see in some pictures both Tristan and Liam were not feeling the best on the day Grayson came home. Liam had a really bad ear infection, fever and cough and Tristan was fighting a fever so they both wore masks when we brought Grayson home. It was wonderful to have all my boys finally together and at the same time it was nice of Gramma to take them home with her so Grayson and I could settle in and keep the sick germs away. They ended up staying with her for the week. By the time everyone was back home together no one was sick and Grayson was finally eating right. We were able to enjoy being a family of 7! Yes I said 7!

Robotics

Tristan has had the privilege this year as a fourth grader to participate in the robotics club. He meets once a week after school to learn about robotics and to create a VEX robot for competition. He has been to one competition so far and made eigth place out of thirteen. He was very excited!! He will be competing again sometime this month. (he can't wait since he gets to miss part of school for it :)

Snow!

I guess it had to happen sooner or later but I sure was liking the nice weather and would have done just fine without any snow this year. It's been wonderful to play outside in lighter coats and not have to bundle everyone up.  However, the boys were very excited to finally have some snow to play in. Declan did not like the process of getting ready to go outside and wasn't a big fan of the snow when we finally made it out. He did end up playing a little while but wouldn't leave his gloves on so it was short lived. Liam, Tristan and Colin played outside for almost two hours building snow walls, knocking them down and enjoyed a good ol' snowball fight. (That's when Liam came in) It has been a fun weekend to just stay home play in the snow, enjoy hot chocolate and have some down time as a family of six before the little guy gets here.

Surprise!!!!!

We definitely were!! We are expecting Shockey boy number five in March. Our due date is March 22nd. Which happens to be right in the middle of spring break this year.  The boys have only know for about two weeks. We waited until we found out it is a boy before we told them and they are all excited. We are starting to figure out how to arrange everthing and everybody and look forward to meeting this very active little boy this spring.

Zombies, Monsters, Birthdays and more...

Happy Halloween With Daddy's birthday, dressing up, and trick-or-treating we really have fun on Halloween. This year Daddy was a zombie, Tristan went as Harry Potter, Colin was a wizard at school and Nevel Longbottom for trick-or-treating, Liam was a ghost and Declan was a cute monster. We started at the church for trunk or treat, took a little break at Gramma and Papa's house where we met up with the Truesdells then Daddy, Uncle Brendan, Mr. Truesdell and another neighbor went out trick-or-treating. They were gone a good hour and a half or more. I guess as they are getting older they can make it longer. After trick-or-treating the boys weighed their bags a respectful 4, 4 and 5 pound bags of candy (not quite sure how one was a little more when they went to the same places). Which did not include the haul from church that had been dumped out before the neighborhood trick-or-treating. Then a Broncos dinner, Daddy's bday cake, and a couple of quick sink baths (Liam's face was totally black from his eye makeup) a fun day and night came to a late end. Too bad Halloween couldn't always be on a weekend rather than a school night. It's now four days later and I think we have come down from the sugar high and are back on track for bedtime. Oddly enough the boys only have had two pieces of candy (that I know of) a day. They seem to be so excited for the trick-or-treating and not as excited about eating it after the first day. I'm thinking this is a good thing.

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Declan's First Birthday

My little man is one year old. (by now almost 13 months) He has become quite the adventurous little guy. He started walking about 10 1/2 months old and is now running more than walking. It's hard to keep up with big brothers. Declan is such a lover and great at making the rounds for hugs and kisses to anyone around.
For his first birthday we had a little party where many family members where able to join in the celebration. A great surprise was Great Grandma and Grandpa Schulz from the farm were able to be here. (thank you Uncle Jim and Aunt Connie) We enjoyed dinner, cake and then the Husker game of course.
Declan started out a little timid with his cake but that did not last long as he soon dug right into it with two fists. I had to hose him down in the sink afterwards to get all the cake out of his hair. It was a wonderful day to celebrate a beautiful, funny, love able, daring little boy.

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New School Year

School has started for Tristan and Colin. Liam is patiently waiting for preschool to start. Declan clings to Tristan and Colin when they come home. Which they think is cute until he won't let them alone.
Tristan started fourth grade. He's getting so old. Colin is in third grade. They both love their teachers and have big classes. Tristan has 33 students and Colin has 26. Unfortunately they were both sent home sick the third day of school and missed the next two days. I guess it's better to miss now before the school year starts getting busier.
We have also started fall baseball which is keeping us very busy. Tristan has double headers every Sunday from now until October 2nd. Colin has just one game on Sundays. However, they are at different fields. The calendar to the right is updated with the game times and locations. It's shaping up to be a busy fun fall.