The Horne Family

Father's Day

2010-07-05T17:43:00.001-07:00

Mike's family all came to our neck of the woods for father's day this year. We all went out to the lake and then had a cook-out at our house. We all had a great time! Mason, Graham, and Isabella bought Mike a new grill for father's day. He loves it and wants to cook every meal on it. On father's day my parents came over and went to church with us. It was Mason's first time at our church and he did awesome! After church we came back to our house and once again...had a cook-out! Below are some pictures of our father's day celebrations. Don't you just love Mason's shirt...I Love Dad :)

It's been way too long!

2010-07-02T19:00:00.000-07:00

My last post was right after Mason was born. Alot of things have happened since then. We found out that he is lactose intolerant and has acid reflux. We were also so lucky as to have a baby with colic. Things are much much better now. Since Mason is on lactose free formula and taking baby zantac he is a very happy baby. He smiles and screams all the time now. He chews on his hands and is beginning to find his feet. He loves to grab my hair when I bend over to kiss him. Right now my favorite thing he does is when he sees his Pop (my dad). He goes wild screaming and smiles forever. He is sleeping from about 11pm until about 6am. We are sooo happy about this! We usually get up one time each to either change his diaper or give him his pacifier if he wants it.

When all of the craziness was going on I didn't know if we would make it through alive, but we did. Thanks to help from my parents. They were either here or I was over there almost every day until I went back to school in the middle of May.

Now Mason and I get hang out together all day long and it is so much fun! We sometimes take a nap, watch Handy Manny, or go visit Nan and Pop. Mason has now been to Wal-Mart quite a few times, the lake twice, and just a couple of days ago he swam in a little mini pool that my parents bought for him. He loves to sleep in his swing and he loves to sit in his bouncy on the counter and watch us cook and clean! He is eating rice cereal, drinking juice and eating prunes (per the doctor for stomach reasons :)), and tried squash for the first time the other night. The doctor didn't want to start anything other than rice cereal until he was 5 months old, but he had a little trouble going to the bathroom when we switched him to formula. Now he is teething so he needs no help going. That is why we replaced the prunes with squash. He weighs 14 and 1/2 lbs and is 26 inches long. We have a big boy!

Mike and I love every minute we get to spend with our sweet baby pigs...graham and isabella incluced. We are so lucky! Below are some pictures of the last 3 months.

Mason sleeping on his Pop

Taking a nap with Isabella
Aunt Cake and Mason

Hanging out with Jeffrey...thanks Aunt Calley!
Laughing at Pop

Sorry Grannie Kim...Born a Horn Always a Horn!
Mason and Mike on Mother's Day

Mason Is Here!!!

2010-03-30T07:35:00.000-07:00

Mason was born on March 16th, 2010 at 4:16pm. He weighed 8lbs. and was 20 inches long. He is so precious and looks just like Mike! He has my lips and my nose from when I was a baby, but other than that he is all Mike. We scheduled an induction because my doctor was going out of town the weekend of Mason's due date. We went to the hospital at 5am on the 16th and the nurses started the medicine to make me have contractions. At 7:30am Dr. Vaughn broke my water. By 3pm...ish I had only dilated to a 3 and the he said I was having placental abruption which is when the placenta starts to separate and the baby has no where to go yet! So...I had to have a c-section. I was very nervous, but Mike was the best husband in the world. Even though he was nervous too he never let me know it. My aunt Sue got to be in the room with us during the surgery and that helped alot too because she worked in that department for 30+ years. I know I was the craziest patient because I kept asking the doctor and Sue is everything was going ok. I wouldn't just let them do their work! ha! I knew everything would be ok as soon as I heard Mason cry. It was just like who cares about anything else. I knew he was ok and that was all that mattered. Mike took him to the nursery and they got him all warmed up and then took him to the window so that our friends and family could see how handsome he was! Our stay at the hospital was kind of rough because I was drugged most of the time so we were very glad to get home. Thanks to my sister-in-law Sherry and my mom we made it through those first days. My mom and dad still come over every day or so and are the biggest help! Aunt Rachel is now called the baby whisperer and Aunt Cake. Every time she touches that baby he is quiet! And...Sunday she was making a cake and Mason wanted to taste the icing so bad...one day :) Mason is doing very well and even went on his first walk yesterday! We could not be happier with our sweet little gift from God! P.S. Graham and Isabella love Mason too! Graham is the protector and will not sleep unless Mason is sleeping. We call them our three little pigs because they all snort! Below is the link to some pictures...enjoy!

http://pbckt.com/sm.d570

Come on Mason!

2010-03-14T19:46:00.000-07:00

We had another appointment last Wednesday and there is no progress to report. There are 7 days left until my due date so we are trying to wait patiently, but it is not easy. Mike got finished with a big furniture delivery in Corsicana on Friday, my dad made it home from the state basketball tournament, Mike's sister is in Dallas and his brother will be here on Tuesday. I guess we are all ready except Mason :) I gave up on work after Wednesday so I had Thursday and Friday off to start my maternity leave. I'm glad because I have come down with a sinus infection and I probably would have injured some students if I had gone. My mom came over and helped Mike clean the whole house so that was a BIG help. Today I have walked and spread fertilizer in the back yard. Last night I ate spicy food, took a hot bath and did sumo squats. My back is hurting down low, but other that that I got nothin'. Mike is still outside right now cleaning up the yard. I think he is just trying to stay as busy as he can until Mason gets here! Hopefully I will get some sleep tonight. Lately sleep has not made it into my vocabulary. Dang, as I am reading over this post it just seems so random. Sorry. Below is a picture of me today. Notice the clothes. This is about all that fits comfortably...Mike's shirt and my maternity tights. I guess I better go wash these clothes so I will have something to wear tomorrow ha! I hope my next post will be of Mason's arrival. COME ON MASON!!!

Mason's Room

2010-03-02T19:22:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures of Mason's room. The only other thing we have added is two shelves above his dresser. Also I am throwing in a couple of pictures of us over the past two weeks. I am almost 38 weeks. I go to the doctor tomorrow again. We are excited to meet Mason! I am just really tired and he is still punching me from the inside all day and night :)

Almost 36 weeks

These are some cute outfits our friends gave us. Jen-he WILL have his picture taken in the weenie dog outfit!
Isabella likes playing in Mason's toy basket and this night she was checking out what was on the window sill.
37 Weeks

Mason

2010-02-14T06:21:00.000-08:00

hmmm...I'm trying to think of all of the things that have happened since my last post. Well, we went to an all day class at the hospital on January 23rd and it made us both feel better about the whole having a baby thing. We had two baby showers! One was hosted by my friends and the other by my sister and family. They were both so much fun! So many of our family and friends were able to come. Mason got so many cute things. His room was overflowing until his dresser was delivered this week. Mike got it all put together and now his room is starting to look nice. I will post some pictures of it when we get it completely put back together (bedding is on back order until March 5th :). My sister got a job in Mt. Pleasant working in the loan department for Guaranty Bond Bank and she got a house in Mt. Vernon so she will only be living about 25 minutes away now which we are excited about! It snowed like crazy and I got this past Friday off work which was nice except for the fact that I am trying to get my students ready for the events they are entering at the Region III FCCLA meeting in Plano this next weekend. This will be my last work related thing to worry about before Mason gets here. I have already planned out for the rest of the semester so I don't even have to think about that stuff anymore! This weekend we made a bunch of different meals for the freezer so we won't have to cook as much when Mason arrives. Last night we got a few other things done that we needed to because I started have more braxstan hicks contractions and we figured that was a hint to get busy. Mike packed our bags for the hospital and put some things in the car that we will need. Below are some pictures from both baby showers. Thanks to all of our friends and family for coming and thanks to all of the hostesses!
Isabella actually liked the snow once she got out in it. Graham was on the couch as usual...

Mike modeling the cute baby clothes line Rachel made for the shower
Graham sleeping in some of Mason's gifts while we were organizing his room
Cute diaper cake Rachel made
Us at the shower in Paris
Haley (one of the hostesses) and me at the shower at our house
Julie and my mama
Emily made this cute diaper cake for the shower at our house!
Mike loved this gift!
Graham testing out the umbrella stroller
Me and Mason at 32 weeks... Yes, i felt like crap this day, but we took the picture anyways.

Colorado Trip

2010-01-21T15:32:00.001-08:00

We went to Keystone Colorado December 19-23 for my sister Rachel's college graduation. We went with our family, Rachel's boyfriend Nick, and my aunt, uncle, and cousins on my dad's side. As Mortons do...we fought the entire time. Daddy drove like a crazy person and Nick hurt his shoulder snowboarding. At least this time there was no condo fire. We all had a blast doing many different activities...eating, skiing, snowboarding, sleigh riding, tubing, and dog sled riding. The condo that we stayed in was so nice and really close to where the ski lift was. I took pictures of pretty much everything that went on since that was the only thing I could really do besides the sleigh ride. It started snowing the night before we left and we got just out of Denver before a huge snowstorm hit. I was worried about flying in the snowstorm, but we ended up having a horrible time getting through the east Texas thunderstorms. I thought I was going to loose my Big Mac on the plane! Mike was amazed at how young the kids were that were skiing so I'm sure we will be back in a couple of years for Mason to try it out! Above are some pictures from the trip. I am trying to figure out the photo bucket thing so bare with me. It sent it straight to my blog and made it a slide show. I will figure it out!

Holidays

2010-01-03T17:49:00.000-08:00

Man, I am posting like crazy today! It must be because I have to go back to work tomorrow and I know it will be one busy week! Below are some pictures from Christmas, New Years, and one of Mason and me :)

Rachel and her "new do"

My family and Mike's sister Sherry and nieces Peyton and Miranda came over for NYE!

Nan and her grand dogs

Mike got Reece's and one of his mom's paintings framed in his stocking.

Me and the pups sniffing out their gifts from Santa Claus

Mason and Me: 28 weeks

Thanksgiving

2010-01-03T17:29:00.000-08:00

I know I am working backwards on my posts, but I keep thinking of more things I need to catch you all up on. Thanksgiving was very different this year without Mike's mom, but I think we honored her very well. We drove down with my part of my fam-in-law (Chris, Sara, Julia, and Callie) to Mission where some of my other fam-in-law live (Sherry, Eric, Peyton, and Miranda). Mike's little brother Jon and his girlfriend Crystal drove down as well. I did make the trip longer than it would have been due to my frequent need to potty, but we made it there! We went on a walk, the kids played football with the guys and we went shopping. On Thanksgiving day we made lunch and Eric cooked the Turkey. Everything tasted so good. I know Judy was proud of all the cooking we did! We went to the ocean the day after Thanksgiving and spread Judy's ashes over the water. We got there just at sunset. It was so pretty and it was her favorite place and time of the day. Mike and I do miss her, but we try to remind each other when we get down that she is having a blast in heaven! Below are a couple of pictures from the trip.

Mike and I with niece Miranda. She looks like she belongs to us! No, Mike is not drugged.

Mike's brother Chris with nieces Julia, Callie, Peyton, and Miranda

Daddy's Retirement/Rachel's Graduation

2010-01-03T17:05:00.000-08:00

My dad retired from 37 years of teaching/coaching/administration on November 30, 2009. We are all so proud of the things he has done for public education in the schools he has worked for and for education in Texas as well. We had a retirement reception for him at Prairiland and so many of his friends, family, and co-workers came. It was such a good turn out! We gave him a flat screen tv for his room as a retirement gift!

My sister graduated from Texas A&M University - Commerce on December 19, 2009. We are so proud of her as well. Her degree is in Management with a minor in Family and Consumer Science. I think she should make a business out of selling her crafts and cakes...maybe she will do that one day!

To celebrate both events we went on a trip to Colorado with our family and my aunt, uncle, and cousins. Below are some pictures of the retirement party and Rachel's graduation.

Mason James Horne

2009-12-30T18:52:00.001-08:00

I know it has been forever since I have posted something, but I am going to try to start doing better. A whole bunch has happened since I last posted, but I will just do one thing at a time. Below are some pictures of me over the last few months and one of Mason that we got yesterday. He is up to 2.75 pounds. Enjoy!Mike and I the day we found out.4 weeks...ish

8 weeks12 weeks16 weeks20 weeks...i did not take a good picture this week!24 weeksMason: almost 28 weeks. We can't wait to hold him! He looks just like Mike!

Baby Bogur Boy and Judy

2009-10-07T05:59:00.000-07:00

We went to the doctor last month and found out that we are having a little boy! We are so excited! It is funny though because anytime you tell someone you are having a boy they ask is you are ok with it or if you would have rather had a girl. I am just glad that they baby is healthy. I like girls and boys so why would I care? We are thinking about doing the room in airplanes, but are not sure yet. Also, we are having a hard time with the name game, but my school is closed for the rest of the week due to the flu so hopefully I will be able to come up with something that we both like. For now he is baby bogur boy because before we knew we just called the baby bogur (boy/girl) :) I am also going to try to figure out how to put the sonogram pictures on here today so bare with me.

Mike's mom past away two Saturdays ago. She had went into the hopspital at the end of August to find that she had kidney failure and possible cancer. She came to stay with us for a week, but had to be taken back to the hospital because her kidney's quit again. Once in the hospital for the second time she began receiving dialysis and they did some tests, but could not figure out where the cancer started. She was eventually released from the hospital and decided to go on hospice which was hard for me to swallow at first, but it was what she wanted. When she passed away Sherry (Mike's sister), Mike and I were there. I think everything happens for a reason because after dinner that night I said a prayer asking God to take her because she was not doing any good. It was not Judy laying there anymore and it was hurting her and us. About two hours after dinner she passed away. She did have stomach lining cancer and breast cancer. We all miss the Judy we know and loved...crazy and wild :) We will have a memorial service at the end of October and at Thanksgiving (her favorite holiday) we will spread her ashes over the ocean (her favorite place). Mike and I are sad that she will not get to meet our little bogur boy, but she did tell me she thought it was a boy and when we found out we immediately called her so that makes us feel better that at least she got to know what we were going to have.

For Jen :)

2009-09-03T17:36:00.001-07:00

Jen,
This is for you since you are the only one who probably reads this :)

Yes, we are having a baby!!!! We found out on July 16th. I took a test the prior Thursday because by my calculation my great aunt should have visited by then, but the test said negative. I was a little bummed out, but how could I expect to be pregnant. It to my mom 13 years! The next Tuesday for some reason I just went and took another test. It was one of those digital ones that takes a lifetime to give you a reading so I went into the living room and tried on my two new pairs of awesome heals :) I should have known when I had to buy a whole size bigger that something was up, but again how could I ever get pregnant with my moms odds! I actually forgot that I had taken the test and about 15 minutes later I ran in the bathroom...I saw "Pregnant" and kept looking for the "Not" that was usually there above it!!! I immediately called Mike and right in the middle of his meeting I told him. He could not say much, but he sounded so excited and surprised. Since he could not talk I had no choice but to call Julie and cry and be nervous and crazy! The doctor sent me for a blood test the next day and on Thursday the 16th Mallory from the doctor's office called me to tell me the good news. We went for our first appointment on July 31st. We were both so nervous and anxious I thought we might just die right there, but we made it through. The doctor came in and asked us a few questions and then did the sonogram and we saw out little baby...AND THEN...we heard the heart beat at only 6 weeks. From what I understand this does not usually happen this early on. After the appointment and getting our first tiny pictures we finally believed it was true...kind of :):) I cannot believe how blessed we are to have a tiny tot on the way. We had actually talked a little about adoption after hearing a sermon at church on being fruitful and saw all the families at Lake Point that had adopted children. That might still be something for our future, but for now we will just work on this one. We told my parents the day the the doctor called me to confirm that I was pregnant and 4 weeks along. Mike brought home pink and blue balloons and a card for them with "Nan" and "Pop" on the envelope. It took them a while to get it because we said we were not even trying until the house was COMPLETELY done, but when they did realize it you would have thought mama won the prize puzzle on wheel...if you know my mother this is at the top of her list! Daddy sat there and tears rolled down his face so naturally I started bawling. Later that night we told Rachel and she was ready to hit Baby Gap. Our second appointment was on August 25th the second day of school. We got more pictures and he/she even looks like a smooshy baby now. We go back on September 22nd for the third appointment and he said we might be able to find out what we are having, but I'm not holding my breath. I have been sick, but and getting better with time and medicine from the doc. I am also eating us out of house and home and have gained around 3 pounds already. Clothes don't fit, but a family friend gave me all of hers to borrow so that is awesome. My students keep staring at my growing tummy. I think it is funny because I was the same way when I had a teacher that was pregnant. Isabella loves me so much now and she always lays her head on my stomach where the baby is. I'm glad she loves me and does not hate me! Gosh, that was a long post. Jen, I will keep it up, but hopefully they will get shorter and more frequent and not like a novel. Tootles!

House

2009-06-25T13:56:00.000-07:00

I have not posted in a while and it is because I have been busy with a few things. I took a flex-entry class for my certification, took a certification exam, began a workout class, and have been working on the house alot. We finished the laundry room and are now onto the largest area...living, dining, and kitchen (all open). Mike started on it last Saturday afternoon. So far we have taken up the carpet, scraped the popcorn off the ceiling, steamed the wall paper off, primed the left over wallpaper, and have started getting the tile up. Mama and Daddy came over last night and mama cleaned our guest bathroom and put it back together after the floor staining. Daddy busted up a whole bunch of tile with Mike and moved the refrigerator. I am very thankful that I have parents who are happy to help us...all the time! Mama also brought over 3 casseroles in individual containers so we don't have to cook! How awesome is that!
P.S. When painting with oil based paint open the doors, turn on the fans, and turn off the air conditioner...yes, we worked inside with paint fumes in 100+ degree weather all afternoon and night.

I will post some recent pictures hopefully in the next couple of days and will include some from my fam-in-law visit and taking the nieces to the Jonas Brothers concert!

Christopher Carrabba

2009-04-30T19:01:00.000-07:00

If any of you have never listened to Dashboard Confessional then you are missing out. They are my favorite band and Julie's favorite as well. Back in the college days Julie and I would go driving and roll down the widows and sing until we couldn't talk any more...and Emily and I listened to them all one summer. Chris Carrabba is the lead singer, song writer, and guitarist. He is simply beautiful. His words have been there for me through good and definately bad times. He sings words that if anyone else tried to sing them I would laugh. He just knows what to sing...that is it. Julie and I have gone to see him 3 times now and I cannot wait until he comes back to Dallas...which may be a while :( Anyways, he also wrote a song about Bella from Twilight which makes him even more perfect that he already was. That is all I have to write about tonight. I am just listening to his beautiful, true, and passionate voice. It is the only thing that can make me relax when I am stressed. He makes my heart beat slow down to just the right amount of beats per minute....yes he is that wonderful. Check him out. You won't regret it. My favorite is screaming infidelities. http://www.myspace.com/dashboardconfessional

Breaking Dawn and Callie Update

2009-04-29T18:00:00.000-07:00

1. First and most importantly I will give all of you who have so graciously prayed for Callie an update. She had the first chemo treatment and got sick. According to my sister-in-law Sherry she got sick a couple of days after and missed quite a bit of school. I hope and pray that her body will get stronger with each one being able to fight it off a little easier each go around, but I am no doctor and don't know how this all works. Her mom Sara said that Mike and I can go sit with her through a treatment so I am trying to prepare myself for that. Please continue to pray for Callie and her family. PUSH...PRAY UNTIL SOMETHING HAPPENS. P.S. All four of my nieces are going to the Jonas Bros. concert in May. I am excited to go with them and buy them some cool Jo Bro's "stuff."

2. Now on to the less important but still amazing BREAKING DAWN. I will admit I have taken around 3 months to finish this book...I think because I didn't want to end my love affair with Edward and hold your breath...Jacob. I never really got into it until this week because I was only allowing myself about 10 pages a day to drag it out a while longer. I did not like all the gory? parts...drinking it out of a cup...gross. I also did not like all the talk about the V group. I just kept saying in my mind...get it over with, but then it happened. Not to spoil for anyone who has not read, but then it happened. It did happen. Yes, I'm not crazy. It did turn out good. Forever is such a wonderful word. Forever means forever and ever and ever and I love that. FOREVER is my new favorite word. Stephanie Meyer is a genius and I would love to meet her and pick her brain. Julie told me today to set the record straight that she is not going to finish midnight sun, but said she doesn't know if she can give up the characters.....which quite frankly...i cannot imagine not hearing the rest of Edward, Bella, and Jacob's story.

Callie (hope I am spelling it right)

2009-04-02T18:48:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody,
I am writing to ask for lots and lots of prayers. My niece Callie (Mike's brother Chris and Sarah's little girl) has been diagnosed with a brain tumor. It is big and is close to her optic nerve so they are not able to operate to remove it. They think it is not cancer so that is good, but she will have to go through 12-15 months of chemo treatments. She will have one every four weeks and they are each 4-5 hours long. Then she will probably have to have radiation when she gets old enough. She is having surgery next week to put in tubes for the chemo. I think everybody is still kinda in shock right now. Nobody knows how to react. I talked to Sarah and she said she will need people at the treatments so Mike and I will be there for as many as we can. Please pray for Callie, Chris, Sarah, and Julie (little sister). It seems like this is going to be a long road ahead for them. Callie is only 9 years old. God can work miracles. I am one. Pray Hard, Love Mal
P.S. PUSH=Pray Until Something Happens. I heard this from Kat that works with Mike.

Babies

2009-03-24T15:13:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of my babies. They are cuter that yours so don't even try it with me :) Some are old...some are new...all are sweet :)

Swo gur with diddy

this was the day after we got isabella...they loved each other from the start

graham the first day we got a camera...he poses well

at the commerce house before we had all the furniture moved in

isabella with uncle johnny

usually isabella is driving, but i can't find that one

i just think they are both making weird faces so i posted this one :)

she looks like a long rabbit here

i kinda look dead, but if I had to go this would be the way..kinda sounds morbid...didn't mean for it to.

yes, your eyes are right. mike is laying on the concrete off the back porch of the old commerce house. why, i do not know.

more pics later...maybe some of me and mike :)
p.s. we bought some flooring for the house last weekend and are putting it in this weekend. i am so happy i cannot even stand it
tootles

Our First House

2009-03-08T19:27:00.000-07:00

Ok. Here are some pictures if I can get this thing to work. All of my photos are too high resolution usually so here goes nothing.......These are pictures of our first house during renovations. We bought it on March 27, 2008. We feel so at home here. It reminds me and mama of our old house in Sulphur Bluff. I cannot get a couple of the pictures to rotate. Jen...How do I rotate it?

Front of the house...before shutters were removed and nasty plants ripped out!

Me looking rough (as usual :). This is the first guestroom/office

Mike ripping the plastic shutters off. We still have not gotten to the outside of the house, but I could not stand them any longer.

Mama and Daddy come over and help us all the time. This is the guest bathroom.

This is the second guest bedroom/Mama's room/Julie's room

This is the guest bathroom after the renovating. The walls are light blue. The accent color is chocolate brown. Since these pictures I have painted the cabinets cream color and have replaced the knobs with oil rubbed bronze ones.

Guest bathroom again minus cabinets painted and new hardware....another picture of this room
later.

This is the first guest room/office. Mikes dad gave him this desk a long time ago. I painted it chocolate brown.

This is the bed in the guest room/office. Graham wanted in the picture so I let him be part of the bed :)

I cannot find a picture of the other guest room/Mama's Room/Julie's Room. I thought I took one, but I guess not. It is finished so I will get one posted soon. We are currently working on our closet,bathroom, and bedroom. Mama and Sherri painted it while we were out of town. Mike pulled up the carpet today. That is nasty stuff. I hate carpet. I will post more pictures as we go through our renovation journey.

I am now a blogger

2009-02-26T18:34:00.000-08:00

Ok, well I finally gave in to temptation. I am now a blogger. Everyone always has the cutest pages and I love reading the stories...Jen:) It may take me a while, but I will figure this out and will then post some pictures of this so called dump we are redoing and the loves of my life...Mike, Graham, and Isabella or as I like to call them Crack and Swo Gur.