10 years - Two Moments and an eternity

A couple of things happened to me ten years ago, one of which has an eternal impact on not only my life but the entire Howerton family.

First, I was fortunate enough to work for the Portland Winter Hawks, which in 1998 won the Memorial Cup championship. It was the highlight of my sports career, which has now extended to almost 13 years in the industry. That single moment - the overtime goal in the championship game - is an amazing piece of history for the hockey club, and one of the reasons why I continue to do what I do for a living.

I was reading last week about the Spokane Chiefs winning the Memorial Cup this season and in the article it mentioned that they are the first US based team to do it since the Winter Hawks did it TEN years ago. I began to think about what has happened over the past ten years, and boy how my life has changed.

That year, I met - and then hired - my future wife Melinda. I still remember the moment she first walked into our office in Portland, although at the time, I never would have guessed that we would end up together. Her walking into our office that day changed my life forever, even if I didn't figure it out for over a year after that.

We would move to Minnesota, and while we didn't live together, we spent every waking moment together. We were dating, we just didn't know it. Before we moved back to the Northwest, I realized that I could not live without her, and proposed. We were married and spent our honeymoon driving back to the Northwest where I would take a job in Kennewick, WA with a minor league baseball team.

Eventually we would move back to Portland and I would again join the front office of the Winter Hawks. I moved on to the Seattle SuperSonics and Storm, where I learned more about being a good sports marketer than in any other job before re-locating our family to Iowa, signing a long term contract to work for our ownership group and launch a new baseball brand into the market.

Of all of the success that I have had in my career, it pales in comparison to the success at home. Melinda has been the most supportive and caring wife that anyone could ask for. In all of those moves I mentioned above, she has supported me each time, knowing it was what was best for my career. This last move, however, was probably the most difficult. We have such an amazing family, and we would be taking our children away from them.

During the last ten years we have had four children (and I had one with my first wife). These five kids are my entire world. Sarah and I email on a regular basis now which is a great way for us to communicate, and I find myself going home for an hour a day to hold Kadence or play with Alyssa and Spencer. I work a lot of hours, and my time with them is valued and precious. I am not sure what I did before them, but I am certianly blessed to be sealed to them forever.

Melinda deserves all of the credit for how great our children are. She is an amazing Mother and an even better wife. I see a lot of qualities in her that I saw in her Father, and see in her Mother, and there could not be two better people to model yourself after. She was born to be the Mother of these children and they - and I - adore her.

So ten years have passed - five kids, one championship, six moves and a marriage that will last forever. I can't wait to see what the next ten years will bring.

2 Week appointment

So, it has been 2 weeks with a new little one in the house and Kady is GREAT! She sleeps really great at night and is just laid back and easy going. As you can tell from previous posts, she is loved by all and the kids (including Daddy) just can't get enough of her.

We had our first doctor's appointment today and are happy to report that she is 9lbs. 10 oz., 21 1/2 inches long and in the 95th percentile for girls on weight. Her color is much improved from the yellow tint she was sporting for a few days after coming home and tomorrow we will find out how her hearing in her left ear is. She had problems in the Hospital passing the hearing test, so we needed to wait 2 weeks to see if extra fluid would drain and allow her to pass the test.

Spencer also saw the pediatrician today to get some regularly scheduled shots - he did very well until they put the bandaids on his shots - he calls them stickers and was very upset that they would put them on his legs - Spencer would rather see his battle wounds than have them covered by "stickers".
Spencer is weighing in at 25lbs 8 oz. and is only the 40th percentile for weight. The doctor and nurses were all impressed with his language and ability to understand at only 18 months old. He of course was a hit with the ladies!

Chandler's Star Wars Lego Collection

Anybody that knows Chandler - knows that he has 2 Loves. One is Money, the other is Star Wars. Chandler has been working hard at saving his money to buy his Star Wars and wanted to share his latest collection with everybody. Some of these Lego Star Wars Characters are Rare and Chandler has spent $50 on just 3 of them. He is continuing to earn more money and has plans to keep buying a whole galactic army of troopers and Jedi's to fight the never ending Lego battle with the Dark Side. (missing from photo is General Grievous) Chandler Took the photo of his collection. :)

Baby Doll

When we were told we were having a girl - I had a lot of fun buying what she would wear. After having Spencer, I was told by Sister Kehr that I would have another doll to dress - I have to admit that she was right. I love picking her outfits for the day, always matching from her head to her toes. Keep watching as we post - more to come.

Big Little Ones

There is nothing that helps you realize that your baby isn't "The" baby anymore like having another baby. They always seem so small until a smaller one comes along.

Baby Kadeleeleeeee

Chandler's Hole in is Mouth

Chandler had a very Awesome thing happen this last weekend. He lost his very FIRST Tooth!

He could not be more excited about the Hole in his mouth and is currently working very hard to create another one right next to it.

The Tooth Fairy was very generous and paid $4 for the little tooth - I can hardly wait to see what the Tooth Fairy pays for a larger one.....

Sweet little Kadence

WELCOME HOME

It's just after noon on Saturday the 17th, and Kady has finally come home. The Kids and I went to pick the "girls" up at the hospital this morning.

Kady has been very busy sleeping and sleeping, with the occasional discussion about some sort of discomfort related to her diaper.

The other three kids now begin the process of adapting to the new human living in their house. For the most part, the transition has been smooth, but it's also only been two hours.

River Bandits Record Since Kady was Born: 3-0! She is a good luck charm!

Kadys Debut

What a great day to have a baby. Everything went so smooth, and as I have time to reflect on exactly what happened today, I can describe the events of the day better than I did below.

We awoke about 5:30 this morning (although Melinda was up most of the night), we got the kids up and ready and took them to their destination for the day.

Melinda and I then headed to Genesis, checked in and were off to room 5111. Since we have a base of comparison, I can tell you that this was the nicest room that we have had for a delivery. The Nurse was amazing, and told us what would happen every step of the way. This was important for Melinda because she had some nerves about inducing labor.

They got the medication going almost immediately, and Melinda began to rest. I took the opportunity to visit the cafeteria and have a quick bite to eat (they don't take credit cards by the way, which was confusing because of the little credit card machine they had next to the register). After taking a few mintues to eat, I headed back to the room, and began to rest. That's when the nurse suggested that we start walking to get contractions going. So we walked the fifth floor for about 20 minutes. The contractions became more and more frequent, so we went back to our room to labor. After a while, I had fallen a sleep, when Melinda woke me up to tell me that we needed to begin walking again.

So - we started walking again. This time, the contractions came about every two minutes, and lasted a good 40 seconds or so. As they became more and more painful, we decided to head back to our room and ask for pain medicine (you see, last time, with Spencer, we missed the "cut off" for pain medicine, and thus, Melinda got to feel every second of Spencer).

They responded immediately, and Melinda could not feel her legs within minutes. I then decided to go back to sleep for a few minutes before the fireworks would begin.

Once again, Melinda woke me up - this time, it was a little different.

"I am feeling a little pressure," she said.

The nurse then agreed to check her to see how we were progressing.

What she discovered is the baby was crowning, and Melinda couldn't really feel it.

The doctor was then called in, and Melinda was instructed to push - in the middle of the first push, I told some sort of joke, and she began to laugh - and the proceeded to laugh the baby out in one push / laugh sequence.

At 2:16 on May 15th, Kadence Elizabeth came into the world, a whopping 9 lbs 9 oz and 20.5 inches long. Of course just like her Mother, she's perfect.

More Pictures Tomorrow. It's been a long day.

Kadence Elizabeth Howerton

Kady joined us at 2:16 this afternoon, weighing in a 9 lbs 9 oz, and 20.5 inches long.

Melinda's medication worked so well, that when she felt a little pressure, she had the nurse check and Kady's head was already arriving. We quickly got the doctor, and Melinda was in active labor for less than a minute, one push - which she laughed through.

I am having some trouble downloading the pictures, so they will come later after I get home.

With this being the final addition to our family, and it going as well as it did, given the complications that we had early in the pregnancy, we know how blessed we are to have each other, and all of you.

It's Go Time!

Dialated to a 5, pain medicine on it's way, and Melinda is having contractions about a minute and a half a part which are causing significant amounts of pain. I think Kady is is ready to join us.

I can hardly type because Melinda squeezed my hand so hard. You have no idea how much pain I am in. :)

We are ready to roll. Next up - baby, and pictures. Stay tuned.

Update at 8:26

The doctor just broke Melinda's water and we are well on our way. Melinda is beginning to feel some stronger contractions and they just started the IV.

Now, we wait for the pain meds. Some of you may recall with Spencer they didn't arrive in time. If they don't show up this time, I would hate to be the person who missed the order. Melinda won't be as nice as she is now.

Stay tuned..

It Begins!

As a part of the birthing experience this time, I will be blogging "live" all day from Genesis Hospital in Davenport, Iowa.

We rose this morning at 5:00, and began preparing ourselves for what will be the arrival of the last Howerton child.

We have dropped off Chandler, Alyssa and Spencer off with some friends from church, and they are all very excited to meet their little sister later today.

I received about 40 emails yesterday after I let everyone know what was happening. I am sorry I was not able to get back to everyone, but please know I read every one of them, and appreciate all of your thoughts and well wishes.

And, we have chosen a name -This baby will be known as Kadence Elizabeth Howerton. Chandler would like to call her "Kady" I told him that would be fine.

More to come as the day goes on!

BABY!

Just kidding. More to come later.