TheFenders.com

Well, supposedly, I was not updating the photo gallery fast enough for friends and family. People were complaining about the gaps in time between photo entries. I guess they didn’t like the ones where Luke was wearing diapers in one and then the next photo was of him with a beard, drinking a beer with his old man. But I digress.

I have hired a new photographer (Julie) for theFenders.com and she has setup a photo album that she manages and allows for all to view and even purchase prints. You can view the new photo gallery here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/julie.fender

Now, photos will still be added here on occasion and videos as well. But due to my time constraints with being a trainer in viking warfare, I might even pass the management of theFenders.com to Julie as well. So continue to visit here for updates. I am not closing this site. The grandparents would hunt me down and do something horrible to me. Thank you for your time and your patience. 

Well, praise God! Got word back from the urologist with Colin’s VCUG results and all is good. The doctor said his kidney looked good and had no reflux. So be gone with you, antibiotics! He also said he saw one ureter which means one functioning kidney.Still don’t know where the other kidney got off to.So we go back to the urologist in a couple of weeks for one more ultrasound to finalize what the story is with the missing kidney. The doctor’s predicts that it is a fused kidney, meaning that the “missing” kidney is most likely absorbed by the good kidney. Hey, survival of the fittest.So done and done with that bit and soon done and done with that urologist. But that’s a whole ‘nother story.  

That’s right, Jadon, easter has come and gone but don’t freak out. Here are some pics for you to remember it by.

This is an actual conversation I had with Jadon concerning the bludgeoning of his older brother with a die-cast 12″ school bus.

Me: “Jadon, do not hit your brother with a metal toy.”
Jadon: “Why?”
Me: “Because it hurts to get hit with one.”
Jadon: “Awethum” 

And so ended my disciplinary action due to violent spasms of laughter. 

We had Colin’s 2 week checkup on Tuesday and, well, he’s still a baby boy. Woo-hoo! He has made it to 9lbs, which is a bit less than his older brothers did at that age but give the guy a break. He is carrying one less kidney (allegedly)  so of course he will be lighter.He is sleeping great, eating great, and, well that’s all he does right now. The boys love him and get a kick out of him opening his eyes which is a rarity right now.

In about a week and a half we go to have a VCUG done on Colin to determine the location of the “missing” kidney and see if there is any reflux in the kidneys. Hopefully, if no reflux is found we can drop the anti-biotics, which have been wrecking havoc on Colin’s gut and move on with life. I am sure you will be getting more information than you ever wanted about kidney functions but hey, it could come in handy during a Trivial Pursuit game or just to impress your colleagues around the water cooler.

I’ve been back at work this week and so far have stayed conscious during the day. I brought my press pot for coffee up to work to give me a bit of extra boost. So far so good. It has been weird coming back from almost 2 weeks off but my manager has been great with my wacky schedule and the transition back to sitting in front of a computer all day has been nice and smooth.

Julie has even started back with Luke’s home-schooling.

And of course what would a new update be without some updated pictures. Go here to check them out!

On March 4, 2008 at 7:40 a.m., Colin Elijah Fender was born. Talk about an overpowering sense of relief to finally hear him and see him. He was a good 8 pounds and 12 ounces and 21 inches long. So even with a defective umbilical cord, he still out-weighed his brothers. Julie is a rock-star. She was up and around the day of the surgery with no problems.One thing that never ceases to amaze me is how I can forget just how much work it is to have a baby in the house. It’s hard work to try and to stay asleep when Julie gets up to feed every 2 to 3 hours. And it is very difficult to make yourself look busy so you don’t have to change diapers. Shoo-ee!Anyway, everything is going great. I have three wonderful little boys and one heck of wonderful wife.Here is a random selection of the 37,621 images taken just during the first 2 days of his life.

Well, as of now there are only two weeks left until the third little Fender arrives. I can’t say I am necessarily ready, but are you ever really ready? Having two little boys is manageable…man-on-man tactics. I am told 3 is a paradigm shift. But hey, my parents survived with their 3 boys so we can too.

In the process of attempting to get ready, we cleaned up and reorganized the garage. No, the baby won’t be living out there but the way things work with Julie and I is we make a list of tasks to accomplish and then we do the one task that isn’t on the list. And then that task takes a couple of weeks to finish. So the unintended task was our garage. Our garage was never painted and not that garages need to be painted but what the heck. Why not? What else would you do on your free weekends and weeknights? Rest? So I finally finished painting the garage this past weekend with some much appreciated help from Luke. Nek, Pa and Mary were in the area and stopped by and we had a very nice visit. Nek helped me put up a much needed peg-board for my workbench and then helped me put back some much needed tacos. 

So now, I we have two weekends left. Do you think we can get anything on our list done by then? Probably not. 

This is a large video so please be patient when watching. There might be hiccups in the playback as it is downloading but once complete it should playback fine.

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

Way back in October, Julie and the boys found the caterpillar of an IO moth at the mailboxes. Once back at the house with the caterpillar, Luke placed it in it’s new home for the next 2 months, his butterfly cage/net/home-thing. Luke had success with a caterpillar that turned into a monarch butterfly this Spring, so we figured he could do the same with this one. Well, 2 months past, the caterpillar cage had migrated from the countertop to the highest shelf of Luke’s room and I thought the thing had given up the ghost. In fact, the day I told them that it was probably dead, it had metamorphosed into a beautiful moth. The photos don’t give it justice. It tasted good too. Not really.

So here is my first attempt at producing a video. I have had the tools (camcorder and computer) but have just never had the time to actually do something with them. In fact I still don’t, but I squeezed some in between kids napping….and my naps. Get the Flash Player to see this player.